| 1. |
- Arukuusk, Piret, et al.
(författare)
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Differential Endosomal Pathways for Radically Modified Peptide Vectors
- 2013
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Ingår i: Bioconjugate chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1043-1802 .- 1520-4812. ; 24:10, s. 1721-1732
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the current work we characterize the uptake mechanism of two NickFect family members, NF51 and NF1, related to the biological activity of transfected plasmid DNA (pDNA). Both vectors condense pDNA into small negatively charged nanoparticles that transfect He La cells with equally high efficacy and the delivery is mediated by SCARA3 and SCARA.5 receptors. NF1 condenses DNA into less homogeneous and less stable nanoparticles than NF51. NF51/pDNA nanoparticles enter the cells via macropinocytosis, while NF1/pDNA complexes use clathrin- or caveolae-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis. Analysis of separated endosomal compartments uncovered lysomotropic properties of NF51 that was also proven by cotransfection with chloroquine. In summary we characterize how radical modifications in peptides, such as introducing a kink in the structure of NF51 or including extra negative charge by phospho-tyrosine substitution in NF1, resulted in equally high efficacy for gene delivery, although this efficacy is achieved by using differential transfection pathways.
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| 2. |
- Arukuusk, Piret, et al.
(författare)
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New generation of efficient peptide-based vectors, NickFects, for the delivery of nucleic acids
- 2013
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Ingår i: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes. - : Elsevier BV. - 0005-2736 .- 1879-2642. ; 1828:5, s. 1365-1373
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Harnessing of a branched structure is a novel approach in the design of cell-penetrating peptides and it has provided highly efficient transfection reagents for intracellular delivery of nucleic acids. The new stearylated TP10 analogs, NickFects, condense plasmid DNA, splice correcting oligonucleotides and short interfering RNAs into stable nanoparticles with a size of 62-160 nm. Such nanoparticles have a negative surface charge (-11 to -18 mV) in serum containing medium and enable highly efficient gene expression, splice correction and gene silencing. One of the novel peptides, NickFect51 is capable of transfecting plasmid DNA into a large variety of cell lines, including refractory suspension and primary cells and in several cases exceeds the transfection level of commercially available reagent Lipofectamine (TM) 2000 without any cytotoxic side effects. Additionally we demonstrate the advantages of NickFect51 in a protein production system, QMCF technology, for expression and production of recombinant proteins in hardly transfectable suspension cells.
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| 3. |
- Dowaidar, Moataz, et al.
(författare)
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Role of autophagy in cell-penetrating peptide transfection model
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) uptake mechanism is still in need of more clarification to have a better understanding of their action in the mediation of oligonucleotide transfection. In this study, the effect on early events (1 h treatment) in transfection by PepFect14 (PF14), with or without oligonucleotide cargo on gene expression, in HeLa cells, have been investigated. The RNA expression profile was characterized by RNA sequencing and confirmed by qPCR analysis. The gene regulations were then related to the biological processes by the study of signaling pathways that showed the induction of autophagy-related genes in early transfection. A ligand library interfering with the detected intracellular pathways showed concentration-dependent effects on the transfection efficiency of splice correction oligonucleotide complexed with PepFect14, proving that the autophagy process is induced upon the uptake of complexes. Finally, the autophagy induction and colocalization with autophagosomes have been confirmed by confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We conclude that autophagy, an inherent cellular response process, is triggered by the cellular uptake of CPP-based transfection system. This finding opens novel possibilities to use autophagy modifiers in future gene therapy.
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| 4. |
- Freimann, Krista, et al.
(författare)
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Optimization of in vivo DNA delivery with NickFect peptide vectors
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Controlled Release. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-3659 .- 1873-4995. ; 241, s. 135-143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As the field of gene therapy progresses, an increasingly urgent need has arisen for efficient and non-toxic vectors for the in vivo delivery of nucleic acids. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPP) are very efficient transfection reagents in vitro, however, their application in vivo needs improvement. To enhance in vivo transfection we designed various CPPs based on previous knowledge of internalization studies and physiochemical properties of NickFect (NF) nanoparticles. We show that increment of the helicity of these Transportan10 analogues improves the transfection efficiency. We rationally design by modifying the net charge and the helicity of the CPP a novel amphipathic α-helical peptide NF55 for in vivo application. NF55 condenses DNA into stable nanoparticles that are resistant to protease degradation, promotes endosomal escape, and transfects the majority of cells in a large cell population. We demonstrate that NF55 mediates DNA delivery in vivo with gene induction efficiency that is comparable to commercial transfection reagents. In addition to gene induction in healthy mice, NF55/DNA nanoparticles showed promising tumor transfection in various mouse tumor models, including an intracranial glioblastoma model. The efficiency of NF55 to convey DNA specifically into tumor tissue increased even further after coupling a PEG2000 to the peptide via a disulphide-bond. Furthermore, a solid formulation of NF55/DNA displayed an excellent stability profile without additives or special storage conditions. Together, its high transfection efficacy and stability profile make NF55 an excellent vector for the delivery of DNA in vivo.
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| 5. |
- Juks, Carmen, et al.
(författare)
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The role of endocytosis in the uptake and intracellular trafficking of PepFect14-nucleic acid nanocomplexes via class A scavenger receptors
- 2015
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Ingår i: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes. - : Elsevier BV. - 0005-2736 .- 1879-2642. ; 1848:12, s. 3205-3216
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cell penetrating peptides are efficient tools to deliver various bioactive cargos into cells, but their exactfunctioning mechanism is still debated. Recently, we showed that a delivery peptide PepFect14 condenses oligonudeotides (ON) into negatively charged nanocomplexes that are taken up by cells via class A scavenger receptors (SR-As). Here we unraveled the uptake mechanism and intracellular trafficking of PF14-ON nanocomplexes in HeLa cells. Macropinocytosis and caveolae-mediated endocytosis are responsible for the intracellular functionality of nucleic acids packed into nanocomplexes. However, only a negligible fraction of the complexes were trafficked to endoplasmic reticulum or Golgi apparatus the common destinations of caveolar endocytosis. Neither were the PF14-SCO nanocomplexes routed to endo-lysosomal pathway, and they stayed in vesicles with slightly acidic pH, which were not marked with LysoSensor. Naked ON, in contrary, was rapidly targeted to acidic vesicles and lysosomes. The transmission electron microscopy analysis of interactions between SR-As and PF14-ON nanocomplexes on ultrastructural level revealed that nanocomplexes localized on the plasma membrane in close proximity to SR-As and their colocalization is retained in cells, suggesting that PF14-ON complexes associate with targeted receptors.
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| 6. |
- Lehto, Tõnis, et al.
(författare)
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Saturated Fatty Acid Analogues of Cell-Penetrating Peptide PepFect14: Role of Fatty Acid Modification in Complexation and Delivery of Splice-Correcting Oligonucleotides
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bioconjugate chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1043-1802 .- 1520-4812. ; 28:3, s. 782-792
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modifying cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) with fatty acids has long been used to improve peptide-mediated nucleic acid delivery. In this study we have revisited this phenomenon with a systematic approach where we developed a structure activity relationship to describe the role of the acyl chain length in the transfection process. For that we took a well studied CPP, PepFectl4, as the basis and varied its N-terminal acyl chain length from 2 to 22 carbons. To evaluate the delivery efficiency, the peptides were noncovalently complexed with a splice-correcting oligonucleotide (SCO) and tested in HeLa pLuc705 reporter cell line. Our results demonstrate that biological splice-correction activity emerges from acyl chain of 12 carbons and increases linearly with each additional carbon. To assess the underlying factors regarding how the transfection efficacy of these complexes is dependent on hydrophobicity, we used an array of different methods. For the functionally active peptides (C12-22) there was no apparent difference in their physicochemical properties, including complex formation efficiency, hydrodynamic size, and zeta potential. Moreover, membrane activity studies with peptides and their complexes with SCOs confirmed that the toxicity of the complexes at higher molar ratios is mainly caused by the free fraction of the peptide which is not incorporated into the peptide/oligonucleotide complexes. Finally, we show that the increase in splice-correcting activity correlates with the ability of the complexes to associate with the cells. Collectively these studies lay the ground work for how to design highly efficient CPPs and how to optimize their oligonucleotide complexes for lowest toxicity without losing efficiency.
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| 7. |
- Margus, Helerin, et al.
(författare)
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Characteristics of Cell-Penetrating Peptide/Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles
- 2016
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Ingår i: Molecular Pharmaceutics. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1543-8384 .- 1543-8392. ; 13:1, s. 172-179
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nucleic acids are highly promising candidates for the treatment of various genetic diseases. However, due to the large size and negative charge, nucleic acids are not efficiently taken up by cells, and thus, their clinical potential remains limited so far. Therefore, various delivery vehicles have been designed to assist the cellular uptake of nucleic acids. Among these, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have gained increasing popularity as efficient and nontoxic delivery vectors. CPPs can be coupled to nucleic acids either by covalent or noncovalent association. Noncovalent coupling, which is based on the formation of nanoparticle-like nanocomplexes (NP), has received much attention in recent years, and the number of studies employing the strategy is explosively increasing due to the high therapeutic potential. However, the properties of CPP/nucleic acid NPs have not been characterized in sufficient detail yet. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the size and morphology of nucleic acid nanoparticles with novel transfection peptides, PepFects (PFs) and NickFects (NFs), using negative staining transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, we examined whether the attachment of fluorescence or (nano)gold label to nucleic acid affects the nanocomplex formation or its morphology. We demonstrated that transportan-10-based new generation CPPs from PF and NF families condense nucleic acids to NPs of homogeneous size and shape. The size and shape of assembled nanoparticles depend on the type of the complexed nucleic acid and the sequence of the used peptide, whereas the label on the nucleic acid does not influence the gross characteristics of formed NPs.
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| 8. |
- Oskolkov, Nikita, et al.
(författare)
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NickFects, Phosphorylated Derivatives of Transportan 10 for Cellular Delivery of Oligonucleotides
- 2011
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Ingår i: International journal of peptide research and therapeutics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1573-3149 .- 1573-3904. ; 17:2, s. 147-157
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Oligonucleotide-based gene regulation has a high potential in gene therapy, but the plasma membrane is impermeable for nucleic acid polymers and, consequently, an efficient and non-toxic transfection agent is needed for their delivery into the cell. In this study we present a novel series, NickFects, of chemically modified TP10 peptide-based delivery vectors used for the cellular delivery of single-stranded oligonucleotides. These carriers, obtained by replacement of Ile8 by threonine in stearyl-TP10 and by modifying of tyrosine and/or threonine, respectively, by phosphorylation formed 300-500 nm in size peptide: oligonucleotide nanocomplexes with negative surface charges. The highest splice-correcting effect was obtained when phosphorotiate 2'-O-methyl oligonucleotides were transduced into cells by NickFect1 (NF1) or NickFect2 (NF2). In addition, we also show how a small modification (one or two negative charges) in peptide sequence can affect its ability to deliver ONs into cells and increase their potency in the splicing redirection assay. Our studies demonstrate that NF1 and NF2 have higher transfection efficacy for oligonucleotides as compared to the most commonly used transfection agent Lipofectamine (TM) 2000 and lead to higher biological response in cells.
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| 9. |
- Sork, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Lipid-based Transfection Reagents Exhibit Cryo-induced Increase in Transfection Efficiency
- 2016
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Ingår i: Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids. - : Elsevier BV. - 2162-2531. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The advantages of lipid-based transfection reagents have permitted their widespread use in molecular biology and gene therapy. This study outlines the effect of cryo-manipulation of a cationic lipid-based formulation, Lipofectamine 2000, which, after being frozen and thawed, showed orders of magnitude higher plasmid delivery efficiency throughout eight different cell lines, without compromising cell viability. Increased transfection efficiency with the freeze-thawed reagent was also seen with 2'-O-methyl phosphorothioate oligonucleotide delivery and in a splice-correction assay. Most importantly, a log-scale improvement in gene delivery using the freeze-thawed reagent was seen in vivo. Using three different methods, we detected considerable differences in the polydispersity of the different nucleic acid complexes as well as observed a clear difference in their surface spreading and sedimentation, with the freeze-thawed ones displaying substantially higher rate of dispersion and deposition on the glass surface. This hitherto overlooked elevated potency of the freeze-thawed reagent facilitates the targeting of hard-to-transfect cells, accomplishes higher transfection rates, and decreases the overall amount of reagent needed for delivery. Additionally, as we also saw a slight increase in plasmid delivery using other freeze-thawed transfection reagents, we postulate that freeze-thawing might prove to be useful for an even wider variety of transfection reagents.
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| 10. |
- Veiman, Kadi-Liis, et al.
(författare)
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PepFect14 Peptide Vector for Efficient Gene Delivery in Cell Cultures
- 2013
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Ingår i: Molecular Pharmaceutics. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1543-8384 .- 1543-8392. ; 10:1, s. 199-210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The successful applicability of gene therapy approaches will heavily rely on the development of efficient and safe nonviral gene delivery vectors, for example, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs). CPPs can condense oligonucleotides and plasmid DNA (pDNA) into nanoparticles, thus allowing the transfection of genetic material into cells. However, despite few promising attempts, CPP-mediated pDNA delivery has been relatively inefficient due to the unfavorable nanoparticle characteristics or the nanoparticle entrapment to endocytic compartments. In many cases, both of these drawbacks could be alleviated by modifying CPPs with a stearic acid residue, as demonstrated in the delivery of both the pDNA and the short oligonucleotides. In this study, PepFect14 (PF14) peptide, previously used for the transport of shorter oligonucleotides, is demonstrated to be suited also for the delivery of pDNA. It is shown that PF14 forms stable nanoparticles with pDNA with a negative surface charge and size of around 130-170 nm. These nanoparticles facilitate efficient gene delivery and expression in a variety of regular adherent cell lines and also in difficult-to-transfect primary cells. Uptake studies indicate that PF14/pDNA nanoparticles are utilizing class A scavenger receptors (SCARA) and caveolae-mediated endocytosis as the main route for cellular internalization. Conclusively, PF14 is an efficient nonviral vector for gene delivery.
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