The spacer arm length in cell-penetrating peptides influences chitosan/siRNA nanoparticle delivery for pulmonary inflammation treatment?

Nanoscale Pub Date: 2015-11-03 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR06903C

Abstract

Although chitosan and its derivatives have been frequently utilized as delivery vehicles for small interfering RNA (siRNA), it is challenging to improve the gene silencing efficiency of chitosan-based nanoparticles. In this study, we hypothesized that controlling the spacer arm length between a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) and a nanoparticle could be critical to enhancing the cellular uptake as well as the gene silencing efficiency of conventional chitosan/siRNA nanoparticles. A peptide consisting of nine arginine units (R9) was used as a CPP, and the spacer arm length was controlled by varying the number of glycine units between the peptide (R9Gn) and the nanoparticle (n = 0, 4, and 10). Various physicochemical characteristics of R9Gn-chitosan/siRNA nanoparticles were investigated in vitro. Increasing the spacing arm length did not significantly affect the complex formation between R9Gn-chitosan and siRNA. However, R9G10-chitosan was much more effective in delivering genes both in vitro and in vivo compared with non-modified chitosan (without the peptide) and R9-chitosan (without the spacer arm). Chitosan derivatives modified with oligoarginine containing a spacer arm can be considered as potential delivery vehicles for various genes.

Graphical abstract: The spacer arm length in cell-penetrating peptides influences chitosan/siRNA nanoparticle delivery for pulmonary inflammation treatment
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