Gene Expression and Pulmonary Toxicity of Chitosan-graft-Polyethylenimine as Aerosol Gene Carrier

Document Type: Research article

Authors

1 Laboratory of Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul 151-742, Korea.

2 1- Laboratory of Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul 151-742, Korea. 2- School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.

3 Nanotechnology and Thermal Processing Laboratory, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul 151-742, Korea.

4 Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea.

5 Indang Institute of Molecular Biology, Inje University, Seoul 100-032, Korea.

6 1- Laboratory of Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul 151-742, Korea. 2- Department of Nanofusion Technology, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Suwon 443-270, Korea. 3- Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology, Seoul National University, Suwon 443-270, Korea.

Abstract

Chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine (CHI-g-PEI) copolymer has been used for the
improvement of low transfection efficiency of chitosan. The present study aims to test the
pulmonary toxicity and efficiency of CHI-g-PEI as an aerosol gene carrier. Mice were exposed
to aerosol containing green-fluorescent protein (GFP)-polyethylenimine (PEI) or GFP-CHIg-
PEI complexes for 30 min during the development of our nose-only exposure chamber
(NOEC) system. CHI-g-PEI-mediated aerosol delivery demonstrated 15.65% enhancement
of the fluorescence intensity. Compared to PEI, CHI-g-PEI showed no significant pulmonary
toxicity. In summary, using CHI-g-PEI is safe and shows high transfection in aerosol gene
delivery to animals, and enhanced efficiency was achieved through our aerosol gene delivery
system. Therefore, CHI-g-PEI and this system would be applicable to future study for aerosol
gene therapy.

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Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Volume 12, Issue 2
Spring 2013
Pages 281-286

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