Carbon nanotube-mediated delivery of nucleic acids does not result in non-specificactivation of B lymphocytes

Abstract

The efficient delivery of genes and proteins into primary mammalian cells and tissues hasrepresented a formidable challenge. Recent advances in the research of carbon nanotubes(CNTs) offer much promise for their use as delivery platforms into mammaliancells. Ideally, CNT-mediated applications should not result in cellular toxicity norperturb cellular homeostasis (e.g., result in non-specific activation of primary cells).It is therefore critical to evaluate the impact of CNT exposure on the cellularmetabolism, proliferation and survival of primary mammalian cells. We investigated thecompatibility of a recently developed CNT-mediated delivery method, termednanospearing, with primary ex vivo cultures of B lymphocytes. Several parameterswere evaluated to assess the impact of CNTs on naïve B lymphocytes, includingcell survival, activation, proliferation and intracellular signal transduction. Ourresults indicate that nanospearing does not result in the activation of naïve primaryB lymphocytes nor alter survival in ex vivo cultures. Herein, B cells exposedto CNTs were capable of responding to extrinsic pro-survival signals such asinterleukin-4 and signaling by the B-cell antigen receptor in a manner similar tothat of B cells cultured in the absence of CNTs. Our study demonstrates thebiocompatibility of the CNT-mediated nanospearing procedure with respect to primary Blymphocytes.