Gene delivery by PeI-nanocomplex into breast and colorectal tumor cell lines, the impacts of N/P ratio, size and type of the cell

Abstract

The safety, low cost, ease of preparation and manipulation of nonviral vectors such as PEIs (polyethyleneimines) have made them a widespread tool for gene delivery despite their poor efficiency compared to viral vectors. We used PEI in comparison with liposome reagent in combination with pEGFP-C1 to evaluate transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity in various cancer cell lines including MCF-7, SW-480, and CT-26. The N/P ratio (nitrogen groups of polymer/ phosphate groups of nucleic acid) 10:1 for PEI 2000 and PEI 25000 was selected as the most appropriate N/P ratio for transfection based on cell viability and transfection efficiency. The cell types received the nanoparticles and lipofectamines with different efficiencies according to the following relationship: MCF-7 (P<0.001)>SW-480 (P<0.001)>CT-26 (P<0.001). PEI 25000 acted as a non-viral vector better than PEI 2000 and lipofectamineTM 2000 (P<0.001) to transfect of pEGFP-C1 into MCF-7 breast cancer cell line, whereas PEI 2000 and lipofectamineTM 2000 were the better choice for plasmid transfection compared to PEI 25000 in SW-480 and CT-26 colorectal cancer cell lines. The results showed that by decreasing the size and increasing the charge of PEI 2000 and PEI 25000 nanoparticles the gene delivery was increased for colorectal cancer cell lines including SW-480 and CT-26. However, PEI 2000 and lipofectamine were more effective at entering colon cancer cells than PEI 25000. Increasing the size and charge associated with the nanoparticles, improved the expression level of GFP in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Results of this study showed that evaluation of non-viral vectors on cancer cell types avoids wasting time and duplication studies. © 2020 Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ankara (FABAD). All rights reserved.