In this study, a simple and efficient strategy for selective intracellular delivery of RNA therapeutics into target cancer cells was designed using direct complementary base pairing between chemically conjugated multimeric antisense strands and aptamer-incorporating sense strands.

A long chain microRNA-34a conjugate (lc-miRNA) was prepared by chemical crosslinking in order to improve entrapment efficiency into calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CaPs) and intracellular delivery. Thiol-modified miRNA at both terminal ends was chemically conjugated using crosslinkers to form lc-miRNA which was encapsulated within CaPs by a conventional co-precipitation method. Encapsulation efficiencies, physicochemical properties, and in vitro intracellular delivery efficiencies of the prepared linear polyethyleneimine (LPEI)-coated CaPs (LPEI-CaP) containing common miRNA and lc-miRNA were comparatively evaluated. The prepared lc-miRNA exhibited noticeably enhanced encapsulation efficiency during the CaP formulation process when compared to common miRNA. LPEI-CaP/lc-miRNAs consisted of nano-sized particles with great homogeneity and were observed to be successfully delivered into PC-3 cells. Fabricated LPEI-CaPs with duplex form of lc-miRNA (lc-miRNA-d) suppressed cancer cell proliferation as well as migration much more efficiently than those with duplex form of miRNA (miRNA-d). In addition, LPEI-CaP/lc-miRNA-d conferred negligible cytotoxicity on PC-3 cells. Chemical crosslinking of therapeutic miRNAs via a reducible linkage may allow more efficient encapsulation within CaPs as well as homogeneous particle formulation due to a higher spatial charge density than common miRNAs. The well-formulated LPEI-CaPs with lc-miRNA-d have the potential to provide superior miRNA transfection efficiency and inhibition of cancer proliferation.

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