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Investigating Efficacy of Three DNA-Aptamers in Targeted Plasmid Delivery to Human Prostate Cancer Cell Lines

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Abstract

Selection of targeted and efficient carriers to deliver drugs and genes to cells and tissues is still a major challenge and to overcome this obstacle, aptamers conjugated to nanoparticles have been broadly examined. To assess whether polycation of aptamers can improve plasmid delivery efficacy, we investigated the effect of three DNA-aptamers (AS1411, WY-5a, and Sgs-8) conjugated to branched polyethylenimine (b-PEI; MW ∼25 kDa) with different combinations of gene (plasmid) for delivery to prostate cancer cell lines (DU145 and PC3). According to transfection assessments, the dual conjugation of aptamers (AS:WY) with b-PEI produced the best results and increased the efficiency of plasmid delivery to up to three folds compared to unmodified PEI. Surprisingly, triple aptamer arrangement not only reduced transfection ability but also showed cytotoxicity. While our results demonstrated potential synergistic effects of AS1411 and WY-5a aptamers for gene delivery, it is important to note that the present evidence relies on the aptamer and cell types.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran (No. 961395).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 91775-1159, Mashhad, Iran

    Saeedeh Askarian, Niloofar Khandan Nasab, Seyed Hamid Aghaee-Bakhtiari, Mohammad Hassan Jafari Najaf Abadi & Reza Kazemi Oskuee

  2. Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran

    Saeedeh Askarian

  3. Applied Biomedical Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Reza Kazemi Oskuee

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  1. Saeedeh Askarian
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Askarian, S., Nasab, N.K., Aghaee-Bakhtiari, S.H. et al. Investigating Efficacy of Three DNA-Aptamers in Targeted Plasmid Delivery to Human Prostate Cancer Cell Lines. Mol Biotechnol 65, 97–107 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-022-00528-7

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