Magnetically enhanced nucleic acid delivery. Ten years of magnetofection—Progress and prospects

Abstract

Nucleic acids carry the building plans of living systems. As such, they can be exploited to make cells produce a desired protein, or to shut down the expression of endogenous genes or even to repair defective genes. Hence, nucleic acids are unique substances for research and therapy. To exploit their potential, they need to be delivered into cells which can be a challenging task in many respects. During the last decade, nanomagnetic methods for delivering and targeting nucleic acids have been developed, methods which are often referred to as magnetofection. In this review we summarize the progress and achievements in this field of research. We discuss magnetic formulations of vectors for nucleic acid delivery and their characterization, mechanisms of magnetofection, and the application of magnetofection in viral and nonviral nucleic acid delivery in cell culture and in animal models. We summarize results that have been obtained with using magnetofection in basic research and in preclinical animal models. Finally, we describe some of our recent work and end with some conclusions and perspectives.

Large scale production of biocompatible magnetite nanocrystals with high saturation magnetization values through green aqueous synthesis

“…[1][2][3] They can be applied in diagnosis as molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, in specific drug targeting, in magnetofection for gene therapy, 4 tissue engineering and repair, biosensing, biochemical separations, bioanalysis 5 and also in cancer treatment by hyperthermia. 6,7 In particular, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (magnetite, Fe 3 O 4 and maghemite, -Fe 2 O 3 ) have received a notable interest in this field because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability and physiological stability.…”

Influence of Physicochemical Properties and PEG Modification of Magnetic Liposomes on Their Interaction with Intestinal Epithelial Caco-2 Cells

“…2,14,19,20) This magnetic nanoparticle-based drug delivery system is also expected to improve the bioavailability of oral drugs. However, there are few reports on the potential of magnetic nanoparticles as an oral drug carrier.…”

“…9,10) In addition, the magnetic field has been reported to enhance the binding of magnetic nanoparticles on cell surface, resulting in the increase of their cellular uptake in the targeted region. 2,[11][12][13] These effects of an external magnetic field contribute to both increasing the therapeutic efficacy of drugs loaded on magnetic nanoparticles and diminishing the occurrence of adverse effects by them. However, it is necessary to provide magnetic nanoparticles with several properties, including monodispersity, stability, biocompatibility, safety and drug loading capacity, to exploit magnetic nanoparticles as a drug carrier.…”

Medicated Nanoparticle for Gene Delivery

“…Temperature also has an effect in the stability of the magnetic nanoparticle due to energy transfer from the solvent molecules (Brownian motion) to the nanometric particles. Hence, magnetic nanoparticle can be coated with a biocompatible polymer to enhance its stability [30,31,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62].…”