Designing siRNA-conjugated plant oil-based nanoparticles for gene silencing and cancer therapy

Abstract

In this study, the anticancer activities of two siRNA carriers were compared using a human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line (A549). Firstly, poly(styrene)-graft-poly(linoleic acid) (PS-g-PLina) and poly(styrene)-graft-poly(linoleic acid)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) (PS-g-PLina-g-PEG) graft copolymers were synthesized by free-radical polymerization. PS-PLina and PS-PLina-PEG nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by solvent evaporation method and were then characterized. The size was found as 150 ± 10 nm for PS-PLina and 184 ± 6 nm for PS-PLina-PEG NPs. The NPs were functionalized with poly(l-lysine) (PLL) for c-myc siRNA conjugation. siRNA entrapment efficiencies were found in the range of 4–63% for PS-PLina-PLL and 6–42% for PS-PLina-PEG-PLL NPs. The short-term stability test was realised for 1 month. siRNA release profiles were also investigated. In vitro anticancer activity of siRNA-NPs was determined by MTT, flow cytometry, and fluorescence microscopy analyses. Obtained findings showed that both NPs systems were promising as siRNA delivery tool for lung cancer therapy.

Keywords:

• siRNA
• PS-g-PLina
• PS-g-PLina-PEG
• nanoparticles
• lung cancer

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Faruk Bahadır for helping us to the preparation step of polymer.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Bulent Ecevit University Research Fund (Grant no. BEU-2016–33496813-01) and Kapadokya University #KÜN(0).2018-BAGP-001.