Experimental siRNA complex uptake without transfection reagents
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Normally siRNA do not penetrate cell membranes without transfection reagents. In Quantum Pharmaceutical we developed a new nanoscale complex with ability to transport siRNA over cell membranes of a cancer cell. In experiments with fluorescent siRNA molecules coupled with our proprietory transport system we conformed the ability of the complex to penetrate the cell membrane already in nanomolar concentration range. To demonstrate that we performed the experiments on lung cancer cells A549 and H1299 incubated with 20 nM concentration of our lead compound QP-654 and observed after overnight incubation.
The graphs above show uptake of the flourescent siRNA complex by the cancer cells. The left upper picture represents nuclear staining of A549 cells with Hoechst dye. The right upper picture represent uptake of fluorescent siRNA complex by the cancer cells. The lower picture corresponds to superposition of upper pictures and indicates the accumulation of the siRNA-containing complex in the cancer sells and thus proves the efficacy of the transport system.
