Cationic lipids enhance cytokine and cell influx levels in the lung following administration of plasmid: cationic lipid complexes.

Administration of plasmid/lipid complexes to the lung airways may be associated, in addition to expression of transgene, with a range of other responses. We report here the induction of cytokines and cellular influx in the lung airway following intratracheal administration of an N-[1-(2-3-dioleyloxy)propyl]-N,N,N-trimethylammonium chloride/cholesterol/plasmid positively charged complex in mice. We show that 1) the appearance of the Th1-associated cytokines IFN-gamma and IL-12 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid is caused by unmethylated CpG dinucleotide sequences present within the plasmid, and is enhanced by the lipid formulation; 2) cationic lipids by themselves do not induce IL-12 or IL-12p40; 3) TNF-alpha is rapidly induced by cationic lipids and plasmid/lipid complex, but not by plasmid alone; 4) an acute cellular influx is induced by cationic lipid alone and by a plasmid/lipid complex, but to a much lesser extent by plasmid alone; and 5) plasmid methylation does not influence the degree of inflammatory cell influx. The induction of the innate immune responses by plasmid/lipid complexes may be advantageous to gene therapy of lung diseases. In particular, induction of the Th1 cell-promoting cytokines by plasmid/lipid complexes could, in conjunction with an expressed transgene, be used to modulate immune responses in the lung airways in disease conditions that are deficient in Th1 cell responses or that have a dominant Th2 phenotype. Alternatively, the elimination of immunostimulatory sequences in plasmids may improve the tolerability and/or efficacy of nonviral gene therapy, especially for diseases requiring chronic administration.