A detergent dialysis procedure is described which allows of up to 70% and permits inclusion of 'fusigenic' lipids such encapsulation of plasmid DNA within a lipid envelope, as dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE). The in vitro where the resulting particle is stabilized in aqueous media transfection capabilities of SPLP are demonstrated to be by the presence of a poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) coating. strongly dependent on the length of the acyl chain conThese 'stabilized plasmid-lipid particles' (SPLP) exhibit an tained in the ceramide group used to anchor the PEG polyaverage size of 70 nm in diameter, contain one plasmid mer to the surface of the SPLP. Shorter acyl chain lengths per particle and fully protect the encapsulated plasmid from result in a PEG coating which can dissociate from the digestion by serum nucleases and E. coli DNase I. Encap-SPLP surface, transforming the SPLP from a stable parsulation is a sensitive function of cationic lipid content, with ticle to a transfection-competent entity. It is suggested that maximum entrapment observed at dioleoyldimethylam-SPLP may have utility as systemic gene delivery systems monium chloride (DODAC) contents of 5 to 10 mol%. The for gene therapy protocols. formulation process results in plasmid-trapping efficiencies

Previous work (Wheeler et al, Gene Therapy 1999; 6: 271-be generated. The SPLP produced could be isolated from 281) has shown that plasmid DNA can be entrapped in empty vesicles by sucrose density gradient centrifugation, 'stabilized plasmid-lipid particles' (SPLP) containing the and exhibited a narrow size distribution (62 ± 8 nm, as fusogenic lipid dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE), determined by freeze-fracture electron microscopy) and a low levels (5-10 mol%) of cationic lipid, and stabilized by high plasmid-to-lipid ratio of 65 g/ mol (corresponding to a polyethyleneglycol (PEG) coating. The PEG moieties are one plasmid per particle) regardless of the DODAC conattached to a ceramide anchor containing an arachidoyl tent. It was found that isolated SPLP containing 20-acyl group (PEG-CerC 20 ). These SPLP exhibit low trans-24 mol% DODAC resulted in optimum transfection of COSfection potencies in vitro, due in part to the long residence 7 and HepG2 cells in vitro, with luciferase expression levels time of the PEG-CerC 20 on the SPLP surface. In this work comparable to those achieved for plasmid DNA-cationic we employed SPLP stabilized by PEG attached to ceralipid complexes. In vivo studies employing an intraperimide containing an octanoyl acyl group (PEG-CerC 8 ), toneal B16 tumor model and intraperitoneal administration which is able to quickly exchange out of the SPLP, to of SPLP also demonstrated maximum luciferase develop systems that give rise to optimized in vitro and in expression for DODAC contents of 20-24 mol% and sigvivo (regional) transfection. A particular objective was to nificantly improved gene expression in tumor tissue as achieve cationic lipid contents that give rise to maximum compared with complexes. We conclude that SPLP stabiltransfection levels. It is shown that by performing the dialyized by PEG-CerC 8 and containing 20-24 mol% cationic sis procedure in the presence of increasing concentrations lipid are attractive alternatives to plasmid DNA-cationic of citrate, SPLP containing up to 30 mol% of the cationic lipid complexes for regional gene therapy applications. lipid dioleoydimethylammonium chloride (DODAC) could