title: Why is less cationic lipid required to prepare lipoplexes from plasmid DNA than linear DNA in gene therapy?
abstract: The most important objective of the present study was to explain why cationic lipid (CL)-mediated delivery of plasmid DNA (pDNA) is better than that of linear DNA in gene therapy, a question that, until now, has remained unanswered. Herein for the first time we experimentally show that for different types of CLs, pDNA, in contrast to linear DNA, is compacted with a large amount of its counterions, yielding a lower effective negative charge. This feature has been confirmed through a number of physicochemical and biochemical investigations. This is significant for both in vitro and in vivo transfection studies. For an effective DNA transfection, the lower the amount of the CL, the lower is the cytotoxicity. The study also points out that it is absolutely necessary to consider both effective charge ratios between CL and pDNA and effective pDNA charges, which can be determined from physicochemical experiments.
authors: Grupo Química Coloidal y Supramolecular, Departamento de Química Física I, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors: Mónica
authors: M
authors: Muñoz-Úbeda
authors: Santosh K
authors: SK
authors: Misra
authors: Ana L
authors: AL
authors: Barrán-Berdón
authors: Clara
authors: C
authors: Aicart-Ramos
authors: María B
authors: MB
authors: Sierra
authors: Joydeep
authors: J
authors: Biswas
authors: Paturu
authors: P
authors: Kondaiah
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Junquera
authors: Santanu
authors: S
authors: Bhattacharya
authors: Emilio
authors: E
authors: Aicart
mesh_terms: D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D008055:Lipids; D008081:Liposomes; D004247:DNA