Cheap method of producing nanocontainers for gene delivery
Gene therapy has great potential for the treatment of diseases, and nanoparticles are considered a suitable vehicle for the effective and safe delivery of genes to certain types of cells and tissues. They can replace traditional methods using viruses and offer an alternative strategy for genetic engineering and gene therapy.
Technological capabilities of nanoparticle production are limited by synthetic approaches – cumbersome and time-consuming. They often do not meet the complicated requirements of modern biology, including the parameters of gene delivery.
To solve this problem, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, working at the California Institute of Nanosystems and the Kramp Institute for Molecular Diagnostics, have come up with a faster way to manufacture highly efficient nanocontainers for gene delivery. The research team has developed a supramolecular synthetic method for producing a library of nanoparticles for gene delivery by simply mixing several molecular components and DNA, without involving a complex multi-stage synthesis.
In order to simplify the methodology and find the optimal delivery method, a digital dual-core microchip was designed and manufactured for the production and testing of a library of artificial viruses.
A video clip with a working chip can be viewed in the additional information to the article published in the October issue of ACS Nano magazine (Hao Wang et al., A Rapid Pathway Towards a Superb Gene Delivery System: Programming Structural and Functional Diversity into a Supramolecular Nanoparticle Library).
The researchers presented the evidence base of a new method of biological research, which is usually used to measure the effect of substances on a living organism and is used in the development of new drugs. A popular retelling of the article (UCLA researchers find a faster way to produce efficient nano-vehicles for gene delivery) is published in a UCLA press release.
"We assume that the method we have developed can be adapted for the production of vehicles based on nanoparticles that will be used to deliver various goods, including genes, short interfering RNAs, proteins, drugs, as well as any combination of these elements," said the head of the work, Professor Xianzhong Tseng (Hsian–Rong Tseng), Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, fellow of the California Institute of Nanosystems and the Kramp Institute of Molecular Diagnostics.
"Unlike conventional methods based on manual operations, the microchip developed at the University of California is designed in such a way as to avoid human errors, speed up processing, increase reproducibility and achieve economical use of samples," explains Dr. Hao Wang, researcher at Dr. Zeng's research laboratory and the main author of the article. "The method makes it possible to automate the development of large–scale libraries containing up to 648 different DNA-containing nanoparticles in just 2.5 hours."
Being the pioneers of this scientific direction, the scientists of the Tseng group have been studying digital microfluidics (microhydrodynamics) for sequential and parallel chemical reactions for six years. Digital microfluidics is an alternative technology for creating laboratories-on-a-chip based on micromanipulation with isolated droplets.
Now the research team is testing the possibility of using these nanosupply vehicles to deliver genes that will facilitate the reprogramming of human cells for the production of induced pluripotent stem cells, which are extremely important for regenerative medicine.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials popnano.ru22.11.2010