International Conference on Applications of Radiation Science and Technology

γ-Ray-Radiation-Scissioned Chitosan as a Gene Carrier and its Improved in vitro Gene Transfection Performance

27 Apr 2017, 14:15

2h

IAEA Board Room B/M1 (IAEA Headquarters)

Poster RADIATION SYNTHESIS AND MODIFICATION OF MATERIALS P-A2

Speaker

Ms Mozhen Wang (Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, China)

Description

Chitosan (CS) has long been expected to be an ideal gene carrier for its high biosafety.[1] However, the low transfection efficiency of the raw chitosan-based vector has long been a problem troubling the researchers in medicine due to its poor water solubility, low electric charge density, dissociation problem, and other disadvantages.[2] In this work, CS with low molecular weight (MW) were prepared through the γ-ray radiation on the acetic acid solution of CS. The CS chains were scissioned under the γ-ray radiation. When the absorbed dose was above 30 kGy, the MW decreased about an order of magnitude, i.e. from the original 3.5 × 105 g·mol-1 to 9.0×104 g·mol-1 (30 kGy) and 5.0×104 g·mol-1 (50 kGy). The γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS can effectively bind with plasmid (pEGFP) through complex coacervation method, forming pEGFP/γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles with a size of 200 ~ 300 nm. The complex particles has a good stability and little cytotoxicity. The γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS can protect pEGFP from being digested by DNase I according to the gel electrophoresis analysis. The in vitro gene transfection efficiency of the pEGFP/γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles were investigated by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry. The results showed that the gene vectors using γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS as the carrier will possess better gene transfection efficiency than those using natural high-MW CS as the carrier. The higher the absorbed dose, the smaller the MW of CS and the better transfection efficiency of the corresponding gene vector. This work provides a green and simple method on the preparation of CS-based gene vectors with high efficiency and biosafety. [1] J.M. Dang, K.W. Leong, Advanced drug delivery reviews, 2006, 58, 487. [2] S. Mao, W. Sun, T. Kissel, Advanced drug delivery reviews, 2010, 62, 12.