Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
J Nanobiotechnology. 2013 Jun 24;11:19. doi: 10.1186/1477-3155-11-19.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) has attracted attention in the field of nucleic acid medicine as a RNA interference (RNAi) application that leads to gene silencing due to specific messenger RNA (mRNA) destruction. However, since siRNA is unstable in blood and unable to cross the cell membrane, encapsulation of siRNA into a carrier is required.
In this study, we used a carrier that combined ZHER2-displaying bio-nanocapsule (derived from hepatitis B virus surface antigen) and liposomes in a complex in order to investigate the feasibility of effective and target-cell-specific RNAi applications. As a result, by observing RNAi only in HER2-expressing breast cancer cells, using our proposed methodology, we successfully demonstrated target-cell-specific delivery and effective function expression of siRNA.
These findings show that, in the field of nucleic acid medicine, ZHER2-BNC/LP can be a useful carrier for siRNA delivery, and could also become a useful tool for gene silencing and to accomplish protein knock-down.
小干扰 RNA（siRNA）作为一种 RNA 干扰（RNAi）应用，因其能特异性破坏信使 RNA（mRNA）而引起基因沉默，在核酸药物领域引起了关注。然而，由于 siRNA 在血液中不稳定且无法穿透细胞膜，因此需要将其包裹在载体中。
在这项研究中，我们使用了一种载体，将展示 ZHER2 的生物纳米胶囊（源自乙型肝炎病毒表面抗原）与脂质体复合，以研究有效且针对靶细胞的 RNAi 应用的可行性。结果表明，通过仅在 HER2 表达的乳腺癌细胞中观察到 RNAi，我们成功地证明了我们提出的方法可以实现 siRNA 的靶向细胞特异性递送和有效功能表达。
这些发现表明，在核酸药物领域，ZHER2-BNC/LP 可以作为 siRNA 递送的有用载体，也可以成为基因沉默和实现蛋白敲低的有用工具。
