Baicalin-modified polyethylenimine for miR-34a efficient and safe delivery

Yingying Wang; Baiyan Wang; Yangfan Xiao; Qingchun Cai; Junyue Xing; Hao Tang; Ruiqin Li; Hongtao Zhang

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1290413

Baicalin-modified polyethylenimine for miR-34a efficient and safe delivery

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Nov 3:11:1290413. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1290413. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yingying Wang^#^{1

2}, Baiyan Wang^#¹, Yangfan Xiao², Qingchun Cai³, Junyue Xing², Hao Tang², Ruiqin Li⁴, Hongtao Zhang^{5

6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Medical College, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
² National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Heart Center of Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital and Central China Branch of National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Central China Fuwai Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
³ Department of Clinical Lab, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Academy of Chinese Medicine, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
⁵ Blood Purification Center, The People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁶ Blood Purification Center, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.
⁷ Institute of Nephrology, Mathura, Henan, China.
⁸ Department of Nephrology Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The security and efficiency of gene delivery vectors are inseparable for the successful construction of a gene delivery vector. This work provides a practical method to construct a charge-regulated, hydrophobic-modified, and functionally modified polyethylenimine (PEI) with effective gene delivery and perfect transfection performance through a condensation reaction, named BA-PEI. The carrier was shown to possess a favorable compaction of miRNAs into positively charged nanoparticles with a hydrodynamic size of approximately 100 nm. Additionally, BA-PEI possesses perfect degradability, which benefits the release of miR-34a from the complexes. In A549 cells, the expression level of the miR-34a gene was checked by Western blotting, which reflects the transfection efficiency of BA-PEI/miR-34a. When miR-34a is delivered to the cell, the perfect anti-tumor ability of the BA-PEI/miR-34a complex was systematically evaluated with the suppressor tumor gene miR-34a system in vitro and in vivo. BA-PEI-mediated miR-34a gene transfection is more secure and effective than the commercial transfection reagent, thus providing a novel approach for miR-34a-based gene therapy.

Keywords: baicalin; gene therapy; hydrophobic modification; lung cancer; miR-34a.

Grants and funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the special research project of TCM in Henan Province (2019ZY 2007) and the Henan Science and Technology Department (Project Number 221111310800).