Nanocomposite Nucleic Acid Delivery Devices

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目标是开发一类新的多层纳米颗粒，其将被优化用于非病毒基因和寡核苷酸递送。纳米颗粒的每一层在核酸向细胞的有效运输和递送中起着重要作用。使用自组装技术，将制造以高容量结合DNA并具有针对细胞内化优化的表面的金属纳米复合颗粒。这些递送颗粒的独特特性是入射光激发等离子体共振并且颗粒强烈地散射光。即使在小于100 nm的尺寸下，颗粒也作为彩色点光源成像，并且可以使用暗场显微镜在细胞内部单独识别。通过在复杂的核酸递送过程中的每个步骤监测颗粒的位置和DNA负载，将确定最佳的颗粒制剂，其在已被鉴定为癌症基因治疗的有希望的靶标的细胞系中使转染效率最大化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This goal of this project is to develop a new class of multi-layered nanoparticles that will be optimized for non-viral gene and oligonucleotide delivery. Each layer of the nanoparticles plays an important role in the efficient transport and delivery of nucleic acids to cells. Using self-assembly techniques, a metal nanocomposite particle that binds DNA at a high capacity and has a surface that is optimized for cell internalization will be fabricated. A unique characteristic of these delivery particles is that incident light excites a plasmon resonance and the particles intensely scatter light. Even at sizes below 100 nm, the particles image as colored point sources of light and can be individually identified in the interior of cells using dark field microscopy. By monitoring the position and DNA loading of the particles at each step in the complex nucleic acid delivery process, optimal particle formulations will be determined that maximize transfection efficiencies in cell lines that have been identified as promising targets for cancer gene therapy.