Dendrosomes: a novel family of vehicles for transfection and therapy

Abstract

Hereby we report the transfection performance of a new family of synthetic vehicles having spherical dendritic structures readily made and utilized in direct delivery of genes into cells and model animals. Besides their ease of preparation and storage they enjoy some unique advantages, eg they are inexpensive, inert, highly stable and easy to handle and apply compared with other existing synthetic vehicles for gene delivery (cationic lipids, dendrimers and liposomes). Data obtained thus far on cell cultures and animal models have irrevocably demonstrated their inertness as well as their impressive performance in easy, quick and direct transfections, which include: (1) Direct delivery of plasmid, pEcoRI-E (origin of replication of VZV) and pNN2 (containing HSV1 polymerase gene) into human kidney (G293, Vero) and hepatocyte (Huh7) cell cultures, by simply mixing each of these plasmids with the dendrosome for a very short period and exposing it to the target cell in culture.(2) Direct intramuscular (IM) or intradermal (ID) injection of mixture of a dendrosome with CMV containing the gene for hepatitis B surface antigen into BalbC mice. Here it is found that as a high a ratio of plasmid/ dendrosome as 150 (or even higher in second and third injections) can be easily achieved, which elicits a quick and intense immune (antibody) response compared with common methods (eg 20% sucrose) or recombinant antigen vaccines.

Dendrosomal Curcumin Inhibits Metastatic Potential of Human SW480 Colon Cancer Cells through Down-regulation of Claudin1, Zeb1 and Hef1-1 Gene Expression

“…At present, the growing knowledge of nanotechnology promises to be helpful in the development of localized delivery of therapeutic agents by means of nanocarriers with small particle size. The anticancer properties of dendrosomal curcumin (DNC) as a new formulation of curcumin and dendrosome nanoparticle have been explored in mice models of fibrosarcoma and different cancers, and toxicological analysis indicated that did not cause any severe side effects (Sarbolouki et al, 2000;Sadeghizadeh et al, 2008;Alizadeh et al, 2012;Babaei et al, 2012). Dendrosome improves the solubility of curcumin and facilitates its uptake by cancer cells, suggesting that this polymer could open new windows to successful drug delivery in cancer therapy (Alizadeh et al, 2012;Babaei et al, 2012).…”

“…Dendrosome was introduced as a delivery system in the authors' research group. This carrier possess valuable advantages over other carriers, which include ease of synthesis, stability, nontoxicity, inexpensiveness, biodegradability, neutrality, spherical structure, capability of easily delivering drugs and being extremely convenient to handle and use (Sarbolouki et al, 2000;Sadeghizadeh et al, 2008;Babaei et al, 2012). Accordingly, in the present study, in continuation of our previous works, a 400th generation Dendrosome (Den400) was used as a carrier for curcumin (Paleos, 2013).…”

Possible role of nanocarriers in drug delivery against cervical cancer

“…The word ‘dendrosome’ came from the Greek word ‘Dendron’ indicating tree and ‘some’ indicating vesicles. Thus, dendrosomes are vesicular structures composed of dendrimers [102,103]. In a study, Dutta et al [104] explored the potential of dendrosomes for siRNA delivery to targeting E6 and E7 proteins of cervical cancer cells in vitro .…”

Non-Viral Vehicles: Principles, Applications, and Challenges in Gene Delivery

“…This has been a major obstacle in gene therapy experiments (Sarbolouki et al, 2000;Sadeghizadeh et al, 2008). To address this problem, there has been an increasing number of reports in the development of efficient gene delivery vehicles in recent years (Sadeghizadeh et al, 2008).…”

“…There are several techniques for delivery of genes as well as drugs into eukaryotic cells using similar carriers practiced in-vitro and in-vivo. The in-vivo efficacy of a gene or drug delivery system depends on its capability to pass the main extracellular and intracellular barriers encountered from the site of administration to entry into the nucleus of desired cells (Sarbolouki et al, 2000;Sadeghizadeh et al, 2008). The therapeutic effect of a gene therapy experiment would be expected once the introduced transgene in target cells is considered as part of the genetic component of host cell and leads to the production of a new functional protein.…”