Transferrin- and folate-modified, double-targeted nanocarriers for gene delivery

Abstract

Context: Surface modification of nanocarriers with specific ligands defines a new biological identity, which assist in targeting and internalization of the nanocarriers to specific cell populations, such as cancers and disease organs.Objective: This study aimed to develop systemically administrable dual ligands modified nanocarriers, which could target the cells through receptor-mediated pathways to increase the nuclear uptake of genetic materials.Materials and methods: In the present work, transferrin (Tf) and folate (Fa) were linked onto polyethylene glycol-phosphatidylethanolamine (PEG-PE) separately to get transferrin-PEG-PE (T-PEG-PE) and folate-PEG-PE (F-PEG-PE) ligands for the surface modification of carriers. The in vivo transfection efficiency of the novel dual ligands modified (D-modified) vectors were evaluated in tumor-bearing animal models.Results: D-Modified solid lipid nanoparticles/enhanced green fluorescence protein plasmid (D-SLN/pEGFP) has a particle size of 226 nm and a gene-loading quantity of 90%. D-SLN/pEGFP displayed over 30% higher transfection efficiency than unmodified SLN/pEGFP and single ligand modified particles in HepG2 cells.Conclusion: It could be concluded that Tf and Fa could function as excellent active targeting ligands to improve the cell-targeting ability of the carriers and the resulting dual ligands modified vectors could be applied as a promising active targeting gene delivery system.