Dicationic amphiphiles bearing an amino acid head group with a long-chain hydrophobic tail for in vitro gene delivery applications

Abstract

Amino acid-based cationic lipids, which have proven their efficacy as plasmid DNA nanocarriers, were employed as dicationic forms to transfect genes into cancer and non-cancer cells in this study. Proline, methionine, and serine amino acids are involved as hydrophilic moieties and the hydrocarbon long-chain serves as a hydrophobic tail. In a multicultural investigation, cationic lipids were employed as nano-vectors in conjunction with the helper lipid DOPE. To quantify the lipid efficient size, charge, and pDNA binding, biophysical analyses such as hydrodynamic diameter, zeta potential, agarose gel electrophoresis, and serum stability were done primarily. The liposomal particle composition was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Synthesized dicationic vector lipoplex formulations with reporter genes were found to be non-toxic to the cells investigated by MTT assay, and in addition, therapeutic gene p53 transfected into oral and brain cancer cells causing cell death was examined. In vitro investigations further validated that the proline-based lipid (C14-P) has high gene knockdown efficacy than methionine-based lipid (C14-M) and serine-based lipid (C14-S) at optimal N/P ratios as measured by β-galactosidase protein and eGFP expression. C14-P lipid shows superior cellular internalization compared to C14-M and C14-S in HEK-293 and CAL-27 cells attested by confocal study. These findings could include the proline-based lipid vector's exceptional gene delivery activity.