Chitosan-conjugated lipid microbubble combined with ultrasound for efficient gene transfection

Abstract

Non-viral vectors, as gene carriers, have advantages of biological safety and cost-efficiency over viral vectors. However, low transfection efficiency hampers their further clinical application. In this study, we developed a novel chitosan-conjugated lipid microbubble (CMB), which has good biocompatibility and high gene loading capacity. By ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) technology, plasmid DNA could be efficiently delivered into HEK293T cells. The parameters for UTMD including acoustic intensity (AI), duty cycle (DC), exposure time (ET) and microbubble concentration were systematically optimised. Under the optimal conditions (AI, 1.0 W/cm 2 ; DC, 10%; ET, 60 s; 10% CMBs), the gene transfection efficiency was significantly enhanced, without obvious impairment of the cell viability (over 80%). This study described a novel gene transfection strategy that combines CMBs with ultrasound to facilitate safe and efficient gene transfection in vitro with the potential for in vivo targeted gene delivery.