title: Biocompatible multi-walled carbon nanotube-chitosan-folic acid nanoparticle hybrids as GFP gene delivery materials.
abstract: Carbon nanotube (CNT) is one of the inorganic delivery systems that show great potential for optimal biomolecule transporting. Concerning the preparation of CNT-based delivery vectors, it is very important to understand the internal relations of physical properties and surface functionalization of CNTs with the transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity. In this paper, the multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) of different length were functionalized with chitosan-folic acid nanoparticles (CS-FA NPs) by ionotropic gelation process. The micromorphologies, surface functional groups, and zeta potential of the MWCNT-CS-FA NPs were characterized. The effects of nanotube length and surface functionalization with CS-FA NPs on the gene transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity were investigated in detail. The non-functionalized MWCNTs and MWCNT-CS-FA NPs all can deliver the plasmid DNA of enhanced green fluorescent protein (pEGFP-N1) into HeLa and MCF-7 cells and the exogenous GFP gene has been expressed. The nanotube length shows a compromise influence on the transfection and cytotoxicity properties of MWCNTs. Having greater gene transfection ability, however, the shorter MWCNTs exhibit larger cytotoxicity than the longer ones. Moreover, the surface functionalization of MWCNTs with CS-FA NPs improves the transfection efficiency and decreases the cytotoxicity as well. Under optimal conditions, the pEGFP-N1 transfection efficiency of MWCNT-CS-FA NPs is about 4.1%, being 1.5 times as large as that of the non-functionalized MWCNTs. The MWCNT-CS-FA NPs show little effect on the cellular viability when the concentration is up to 250 μg mL(-1). By optimal length control and surface functionalization, MWCNTs should have good applications in gene delivery vectors.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiahui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Yingying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Dongmei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China. Electronic address: tanghao@hunnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Qingji
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China.
authors.forename: Shouzhuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D055672:Static Electricity; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D048271:Chitosan; D005492:Folic Acid
keywords: Chitosan–folic acid nanoparticle functionalization; Cytotoxicity; GFP gene; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes of different length; Transfection efficiency