Polyamidoamine Dendrimer Conjugates with Cyclodextrins as Novel Carriers for DNA, shRNA and siRNA

Gene therapy and kidney diseases

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) poses a significant global health challenge, projected to become one of the leading causes of death by 2040. Current treatments primarily manage complications and slow progression, highlighting the urgent need for personalized therapies targeting the disease-causing genes. Our increased understanding of the underlying genomic changes that lead to kidney diseases coupled with recent successful gene therapies targeting specific kidney cells have turned gene therapy and genome editing into a promising therapeutic approach for treating kidney disease. This review paper reflects on different delivery routes and systems that can be exploited to target specific kidney cells and the ways that gene therapy can be used to improve kidney health.

Dendrimer-based delivery of macromolecules for the treatment of brain tumor

Brain tumor represents the most lethal form of cancer with the highest mortality and morbidity rates irrespective of age and sex. Advancements in macromolecule-based therapy (such as nucleic acids and peptides) have shown promising roles in the treatment of brain tumor where the phenomenon of severe toxicities due to the conventional chemotherapeutic agents can be circumvented. Despite its preclinical progress, successful targeting of these macromolecules across the blood-brain barrier without altering their physical and chemical characteristics is of great challenge. With the advent of nanotechnology, nowadays targeted delivery of therapeutics is being explored extensively and these macromolecules, including peptides and nucleic acids, have shown initial success in the treatment, where dendrimer has shown its potential for optimal delivery. Dendrimers are being favored as a mode of drug delivery due to their nano-spherical size and structure, high solubilization potential, multivalent surface, and high loading capacity, where biomolecule resembling characteristics of dendritic 3D structures has shown effective delivery of various therapeutic agents to the brain. Armed with targeting ligands to these dendrimers further expedite the transportation of these multifunctional shuttles specifically to the glioblastoma cells. Thus, a focus has been made in this review on therapeutic applications of dendrimer platforms in brain tumor treatment. The future development of dendrimers as a potential platform for nucleic acid and peptide delivery and its promising clinical application could provide effective and target-specific treatment against brain tumors.

Non-Viral Vectors for Delivery of Nucleic Acid Therapies for Cancer

The research and development of non-viral gene therapy has been extensive over the past decade and has received a big push thanks to the recent successful approval of non-viral nucleic acid therapy products. Despite these developments, nucleic acid therapy applications in cancer have been limited. One of the main causes of this has been the imbalance in development of delivery vectors as compared with sophisticated nucleic acid payloads, such as siRNA, mRNA, etc. This paper reviews non-viral vectors that can be used to deliver nucleic acids for cancer treatment. It discusses various types of vectors and highlights their current applications. Additionally, it discusses a perspective on the current regulatory landscape to facilitate the commercial translation of gene therapy.

Efficient modification of PAMAM G1 dendrimer surface with β-cyclodextrin units by CuAAC: impact on the water solubility and cytotoxicity

The toxicity of the poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM) caused by the peripheral amino groups has been a limitation for their use as drug carriers in clinical applications. In this work, we completely modified the periphery of PAMAM dendrimer generation 1 (PAMAM G1) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) units through the Cu(i)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) to obtain the PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer with high yield. The PAMAM G1-β-CD was characterized by ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR and mass spectrometry studies. Moreover, the PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer showed remarkably higher water solubility than native β-CD. Finally, we studied the toxicity of PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer in four different cell lines, human breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), human cervical adenocarcinoma cancer cells (HeLa) and pig kidney epithelial cells (LLC-PK1). The PAMAM G1-β-CD dendrimer did not present any cytotoxicity in cell lines tested which shows the potentiality of this new class of dendrimers.

The toxicity of the poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM) caused by the peripheral amino groups has been a limitation for their use as drug carriers in clinical applications.

A biocompatible poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer octa-substituted with α-cyclodextrin towards the controlled release of doxorubicin hydrochloride from its ferrocenyl prodrug

Facile and efficient methods for the synthesis of the first poly(aminodamine) PAMAM G1.0 dendrimer octa-substituted with α-cyclodextrin and a novel ferrocenyl prodrug of doxorubicin hydrochloride are developed. This vector is non-toxic and can bind the designed ferrocenyl prodrug. It also shows a controlled drug release profile and high cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells (MCF-7), as elucidated by the in vitro biological studies performed with an innovative cell-on-a-chip microfluidic system.

Genome Editing in a Wide Area of the Brain Using Dendrimer-Based Ternary Polyplexes of Cas9 Ribonucleoprotein

A preassembled Cas9/single-guide RNA complex (Cas9 ribonucleoprotein; Cas9 RNP) induces genome editing efficiently, with small off-target effects compared with the conventional techniques, such as plasmid DNA and mRNA systems. However, penetration of Cas9 RNP through the cell membrane is low. In particular, the incorporation of Cas9 RNP into neurons and the brain is challenging. In the present study, we have reported the use of a dendrimer (generation 3; G3)/glucuronylglucosyl-β-cyclodextrin conjugate (GUG-β-CDE (G3)) as a carrier of Cas9 RNP and evaluated genome editing activity in the neuron and the brain. A Cas9 RNP ternary complex with GUG-β-CDE (G3) was prepared by only mixing the components. The resulting complex exhibited higher genome editing activity than the complex with the dendrimer (G3), Lipofectamine 3000 or Lipofectamine CRISPRMAX in SH-SY5Y cells, a human neuroblastoma cell line. In addition, GUG-β-CDE (G3) enhanced the genome editing activity of Cas9 RNP in the whole mouse brain after a single intraventricular administration. Thus, GUG-β-CDE (G3) is a useful Cas9 RNP carrier that can induce genome editing in the neuron and brain.

The recent progresses in shRNA-nanoparticle conjugate as a therapeutic approach

The recent trend of gene therapy is using short hairpin RNA conjugated with different types of nanoparticles. shRNAs have a significant role in gene silencing and have a promising role in treating several genetic and infectious diseases. There are several drawbacks of delivering bare shRNA in the blood as they are fragile in nature and readily degradable. To overcome this problem shRNAs can be conjugated with nanoparticles for a safe deliver. In this article several nanoparticles are mentioned which play significant role in delivery of this payload. On one hand they protect the shRNA from degradation on the other they help to penetrate this large molecule in to the cell. Some of these nanoconjugates are in clinical trials and have a promising role in treatment of diseases.

Cyclodextrin-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks (CD-MOFs) in Pharmaceutics and Biomedicine

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show promising application in biomedicine and pharmaceutics owing to their extraordinarily high surface area, tunable pore size, and adjustable internal surface properties. However, MOFs are prepared from non-renewable or toxic materials, which limit their real-world applications. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are a typical natural and biodegradable cyclic oligosaccharide and are primarily used to enhance the aqueous solubility, safety, and bioavailability of drugs by virtue of its low toxicity and highly flexible structure, offering a peculiar ability to form CD/drug inclusions. A sophisticated strategy where CD is deployed as a ligand to form an assembly of cyclodextrin-based MOFs (CD-MOFs) may overcome real-world application drawbacks of MOFs. CD-MOFs incorporate the porous features of MOFs and the encapsulation capability of CD for drug molecules, leading to outstanding properties when compared with traditional hybrid materials. This review focuses on the inclusion technology and drug delivery properties associated with CD-MOFs. In addition, synthetic strategies and currently developed uses of CD-MOFs are highlighted as well. Also, perspectives and future challenges in this rapidly developing research area are discussed.

Novel PAMAM-PEG-Peptide Conjugates for siRNA Delivery Targeted to the Transferrin and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors

The transferrin (TfR) and epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) are known to be overexpressed on the surface of a wide variety of tumor cells. Therefore, the peptides B6 (TfR specific) and GE11 (targeted to the EGFR) were linked to the PAMAM (polyamidoamine) structure via a polyethylenglycol (PEG) 2 kDa chain with the aim of improving the silencing capacity of the PAMAM-based dendriplexes. The complexes showed an excellent binding capacity to the siRNA with a maximal condensation at nitrogen/phosphate (N/P) 2. The nanoparticles formed exhibited hydrodynamic diameters below 200 nm. The zeta potential was always positive, despite the complexes containing the PEG chain in the structure showing a drop of the values due to the shielding effect. The gene silencing capacity was assayed in HeLa and LS174T cells stably transfected with the eGFPLuc cassette. The dendriplexes containing a specific anti luciferase siRNA, assayed at different N/P ratios, were able to mediate a mean decrease of the luciferase expression values of 14% for HeLa and 20% in LS174T cells, compared to an unspecific siRNA-control. (p < 0.05). In all the conditions assayed, dendriplexes resulted to be non-toxic and viability was always above 75%.

Antibody h-R3-dendrimer mediated siRNA has excellent endosomal escape and tumor targeted delivery ability, and represents efficient siPLK1 silencing and inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and invasion

The major obstacle to developing siRNA delivery is their extracellular and intracellular barriers. Herein, a humanized anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody h-R3 was developed to modify the self-assembled binary complexes (dendriplexes) of PAMAM and siRNA via electrostatic interactions, and two common ligands HSA and EGF were used as a control. Compared to dendriplexes, h-R3/EGF/HSA-dendriplexes showed increased particle size, decreased zeta potentials and lower cytotoxicity. Moreover, h-R3-dendriplexes presented greater cellular uptake and excellent endosomal escape ability in HepG2 cells. Ex vivo fluorescence imaging revealed that h-R3-dendriplexes showed higher targeted delivery and gene expression in the tumors than dendriplexes, HSA-dendriplexes and EGF-dendriplexes, which was in agreement with confocal results of cryosections. Furthermore, h-R3-dendriplexes for siPLK1 delivery indicated efficient gene silencing, potentiated cell growth inhibition and cell apoptosis, and suppressed cellular migration/invasion. These results indicate that h-R3-dendriplexes represent a great potential to be used as efficient targeted siRNA delivery carriers.

Effect of methotrexate conjugated PAMAM dendrimers on the viability of MES-SA uterine cancer cells

The aim of this work was to synthesize methotrexate (MTX)-polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendritic nanoconjugates and to study their effect on cell viability in uterine sarcoma cells. The amide-bonded PAMAM dendrimer-MTX conjugates were prepared by conjugation between the amine-terminated G5 dendrimer and the carboxylic groups of the MTX using a dicyclohexylcarbodiimide coupling reaction. The formation of conjugates was evaluated by ultraviolet (UV) and (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) spectroscopy studies. The cell survival of MES-SA cells, a uterine sarcoma cell line, was evaluated in the presence of the dendrimer-MTX nanoconjugate, using appropriate controls. The UV and (1)H NMR study confirmed the formation of covalent bonds between the drug and the dendrimer. The cell viability study indicated that the nanoconjugates had significantly improved cell killing compared to the free MTX.

Functionalizable Amine-based Polymer Nanoparticles

Surface functionalization of nanoparticles and host-guest properties of nanoassemblies are two critical features in the utilization of nanostructures in a variety of applications in materials, chemical, and biological nanotechnology. However, simultaneously incorporating these two features in one nanoparticle design is a rather challenging task. We have developed a simple and versatile nanoparticle platform that addresses this challenge. We have designed and characterized a polymer nanoparticle that provides the ability to encapsulate hydrophobic guest molecules and surface functionalization with a wide range of functional groups. In addition, we have also demonstrated a new and simple approach to tune the size of the nanoparticles.

Sugar-appended polyamidoamine dendrimer conjugates with cyclodextrins as cell-specific non-viral vectors

The widespread use of various cyclodextrin (CyD)-appended polymers and polyrotaxanes as gene carriers has been reported. Among the various polyamidoamine dendrimer (dendrimer) conjugates with CyDs (CDE), the dendrimer (G3) conjugate with α-CyD having an average degree of substitution (DS) of 2.4 (α-CDE (G3, DS 2)) displayed remarkable properties as DNA carriers. In an attempt to develop cell-specific gene transfer carriers, we prepared some sugar-appended α-CDEs, e.g. mannosylated, galactosylated, and lactosylated α-CDEs. In addition, PEGylated Lac-α-CDEs (G3) were prepared and evaluated as a hepatocyte-selective and serum-resistant gene transfer carrier. Moreover, PEGylated-α-CDE/CyD polypseudorotaxane systems for novel sustained DNA release system have been developed. Interestingly, glucronylglucosyl-β-cyclodextrin (GUG-β-CyD) conjugates with dendrimer (G2) (GUG-β-CDE (G2)) had superior gene transfer activity to α-CDE (G2), expecting a development of new series of sugar-appended CDEs over α-CDEs (G2). Collectively, sugar-appended α-CDEs have the potential as novel cell-specific and safe carriers for DNA.