A Multifunctional Peptide-Conjugated AIEgen for Efficient and Sequential Targeted Gene Delivery into the Nucleus.

Gene therapy has immense potential as a therapeutic approach to serious diseases. However, efficient delivery and real-time tracking of gene therapeutic agents have not been solved well for successful gene-based therapeutics. Herein we present a versatile gene-delivery strategy for efficient and visualized delivery of therapeutic genes into the targeted nucleus. We developed an integrin-targeted, cell-permeable, and nucleocytoplasmic trafficking peptide-conjugated AIEgen named T NCP for the efficient and sequential targeted delivery of an antisense single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide (ASO) and tracking of the delivery process into the nucleus. As compared with T NCP/siRNA-NPs (siRNA functions mainly in the cytoplasm), T NCP/ASO-NPs (ASO functions mainly in the nucleus) exhibited a better interference effect, which further indicates that T NCP is a nucleus-targeting vector. Moreover, T NCP/ASO-NPs showed a favorable tumor-suppressive effect in vivo.