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Biomolecules
Special Issues
Recent Insights in Nucleic Acid and Protein Delivery
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Recent Insights in Nucleic Acid and Protein Delivery

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Medicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2022) | Viewed by 5149

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Aleksander L. Sieron

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Biology, Slaski Uniwersytet Medyczny w Katowicach, 40-055 Katowice, Poland
Interests: carriers of macromolecules; carries vs. vectors; chemistry of carriers; delivery of proteins; nucleic acids delivery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nucleic acids and proteins are subjects to natural trafficking into and out of cells and nuclei. The involved systems are highly specialized structures, such as vesicles and microvesicles. Delivery of nucleic acids and proteins has also attracted intense interest from scientists in basic research laboratories, researchers in R&D enterprises, and from pharmaceutical labs for drug delivery. Since the pioneering works by Griffith et al. (1928) and Avery et al. (1943) on the role of nucleic acids in inheritance and trait transmission, scientists have developed a variety of methods for nucleic acid delivery. The past two decades revealed that under certain conditions, delivery of proteins creates less risk of changing cell genome integrity. Although a variety of carriers for nucleic acids and, to a lower extent, for protein delivery, have been developed since the times of Griffith and Avery, further work in the field is still needed.

This Special Issue focuses on the advancement and analysis of different aspects of the systems for nucleic acids and protein delivery that have been achieved and still have to be reached. Both review manuscripts and original research articles are invited to bring the freshest views in this field of biology and experimental medicine.

Prof. Dr. Aleksander L. Sieron
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cross-membrane transport
  • delivery systems
  • nucleic acids
  • proteins
  • vectors

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3732 KiB  
Article
Star Polymers as Non-Viral Carriers for Apoptosis Induction
by Agnieszka Fus-Kujawa, Łukasz Sieroń, Estera Dobrzyńska, Łukasz Chajec, Barbara Mendrek, Natalia Jarosz, Łukasz Głowacki, Kamila Dubaj, Wojciech Dubaj, Agnieszka Kowalczuk and Karolina Bajdak-Rusinek
Biomolecules 2022, 12(5), 608; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12050608 - 19 Apr 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2272
Abstract
Apoptosis is a widely controlled, programmed cell death, defects in which are the source of various diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancer. The use of apoptosis in the therapy of various human diseases is of increasing interest, and the analysis [...] Read more.
Apoptosis is a widely controlled, programmed cell death, defects in which are the source of various diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancer. The use of apoptosis in the therapy of various human diseases is of increasing interest, and the analysis of the factors involved in its regulation is valuable in designing specific carriers capable of targeting cell death. Highly efficient and precisely controlled delivery of genetic material by low-toxic carriers is one of the most important challenges of apoptosis-based gene therapy. In this work, we investigate the effect of the star polymer with 28 poly(N,N′-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) arms (STAR) on human cells, according to its concentration and structure. We show that star polymer cytotoxicity increases within its concentration and time of cells treatment. Except for cytotoxic effect, we observe morphological changes such as a shrinkage, loss of shape and begin to detach. We also prove DNA condensation after star polymer treatment, one of the most characteristic feature of apoptosis. The results indicate that the use of STAR triggers apoptosis in cancer cells compared to various normal cells, what makes these nanoparticles a promising drug in therapeutic strategy, which targets apoptosis. We demonstrate highlighting potential of star polymers as an innovative tool for anti-cancer therapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Insights in Nucleic Acid and Protein Delivery)
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19 pages, 5179 KiB  
Article
Lignin-Based Nonviral Gene Carriers Functionalized by Poly[2-(Dimethylamino)ethyl Methacrylate]: Effect of Grafting Degree and Cationic Chain Length on Transfection Efficiency
by Xiaohong Liu, Hui Yin, Xia Song, Zhongxing Zhang and Jun Li
Biomolecules 2022, 12(1), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom12010102 - 8 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2190
Abstract
Lignin is a natural renewable biomass resource with great potential for applications, while its development into high value-added molecules or materials is rare. The development of biomass lignin as potential nonviral gene delivery carriers was initiated by our group through the “grafting-from” approach. [...] Read more.
Lignin is a natural renewable biomass resource with great potential for applications, while its development into high value-added molecules or materials is rare. The development of biomass lignin as potential nonviral gene delivery carriers was initiated by our group through the “grafting-from” approach. Firstly, the lignin was modified into macroinitiator using 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide. Then cationic polymer chains of poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA) were grown from the lignin backbone using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) to yield lignin-PDMAEMA graft copolymers (LPs) with branched structure. To gain a deep understanding of the relationship between the nonviral gene transfection efficiency of such copolymers and their structural and compositional factors, herein eight lignin-based macroinitiators with different modification degrees (MDs, from 3.0 to 100%) were synthesized. Initiated by them, a series of 20 LPs were synthesized with varied structural factors such as grafting degree (GD, which is equal to MD, determining the cationic chain number per lignin macromolecule), cationic chain length (represented by number of repeating DMAEMA units per grafted arm or degree of polymerization, DP) as well as the content of N element (N%) which is due to the grafted PDMAEMA chains and proportional to molecular weight of the LPs. The in vitro gene transfection capability of these graft copolymers was evaluated by luciferase assay in HeLa, COS7 and MDA-MB-231cell lines. Generally, the copolymers LP-12 (N% = 7.28, MD = 36.7%, DP = 13.6) and LP-14 (N% = 6.05, MD = 44.4%, DP = 5.5) showed good gene transfection capabilities in the cell lines tested. Overall, the performance of LP-12 was the best among all the LPs in the three cell lines at the N/P ratios from 10 to 30, which was usually several times higher than PEI standard. However, in MDA-MB-231 at N/P ratio of 30, LP-14 showed the best gene transfection performance among all the LPs. Its gene transfection efficiency was ca. 11 times higher than PEI standard at this N/P ratio. This work demonstrated that, although the content of N element (N%) which is due to the grafted PDMAEMA chains primarily determines the gene transfection efficiency of the LPs, it is not the only factor in explaining the performance of such copolymers with the branched structure. Structural factors of these copolymers such as grafting degree and cationic chain length could have a profound effect on the copolymer performance on gene transfection efficiency. Through carefully adjusting these factors, the gene transfection efficiency of the LPs could be modulated and optimized for different cell lines, which could make this new type of biomass-based biomaterial an attractive choice for various gene delivery applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Insights in Nucleic Acid and Protein Delivery)
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