School of Life Science, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China.
Institute of Functional Food of Shanxi, Shanxi Agricultural University, 79 Longcheng Street, Taiyuan 030031, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jan 5;24(2):1040. doi: 10.3390/ijms24021040.
The modification of chitosan (CS) has greatly expanded its application in the field of medicine. In this study, low-molecular-weight chitosan was modified with arginine (Arg) by a simple method. The identification by the Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) showed that Arg was successfully covalently attached to the CS. Interestingly, Arg-CS was identified as nanoparticles by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), whose particle size was 75.76 ± 12.07 nm based on Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) characterization. Then, whether the prepared Arg-CS nanoparticles could encapsulate and deliver siRNA safely was investigated. Arg-CS was found to be able to encapsulate siRNAs in vitro via electrostatic interaction with siRNA; the Arg-CS/siRNA complex was safe for L1210 leukemia cells. Therefore, modification of chitosan by Arg produces novel nanoparticles to deliver siRNA into leukemia cells. This is the first time to identify Arg-CS as nanoparticles and explore their ability to deliver siRNA into T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells to advance therapies targeting Rhoa in the future.
壳聚糖（CS）的修饰极大地扩展了其在医学领域的应用。在这项研究中，通过简单的方法将精氨酸（Arg）修饰到低分子量壳聚糖上。傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）的鉴定表明 Arg 已成功地与 CS 发生了共价结合。有趣的是，原子力显微镜（AFM）和透射电子显微镜（TEM）鉴定 Arg-CS 为纳米颗粒，根据动态光散射（DLS）特性，其粒径为 75.76±12.07nm。然后，研究了制备的 Arg-CS 纳米颗粒是否能够安全地包裹和递送 siRNA。发现 Arg-CS 能够通过与 siRNA 的静电相互作用体外包裹 siRNA；Arg-CS/siRNA 复合物对 L1210 白血病细胞是安全的。因此，Arg 对壳聚糖的修饰产生了新型纳米颗粒，将 siRNA 递送至白血病细胞。这是首次鉴定 Arg-CS 为纳米颗粒，并探索其将 siRNA 递送至 T 细胞急性淋巴细胞白血病（T-ALL）细胞中的能力，以推进针对 Rhoa 的未来治疗方法。
