Cationic micelle: A promising nanocarrier for gene delivery with high transfection efficiency

Abstract

Micelles have demonstrated an excellent ability to deliver several different types of therapeutic agents, including chemotherapy drugs, proteins, small‐interfering RNA and DNA, into tumor cells. Cationic micelles, comprising self‐assemblies of amphiphilic cationic polymers, have exhibited tremendous promise with respect to the delivery of therapy genes and gene transfection. To date, research in the field has focused on achieving an enhanced stability of the micellar assembly, prolonged circulation times and controlled release of the gene. This review focuses on the micelles as a nanosized carrier system for gene delivery, the system‐related modifications for cytoplasm release, stability and biocompatibility, and clinic trials. In accordance with the development of synthetic chemistry and self‐assembly technology, the structures and functionalities of micelles can be precisely controlled, and hence the synthetic micelles not only efficiently condense DNA, but also facilitate DNA endocytosis, endosomal escape, DNA uptake and nuclear transport, resulting in a comparable gene transfection of virus.

Peptide-Based Nanoassemblies in Gene Therapy and Diagnosis: Paving the Way for Clinical Application

“…For gene delivery applications, peptide-based micelles offer several advantages like high stability, high therapeutic potency due to efficient gene loading, and small size conducive to deep tumor penetration and cellular uptake [38]. Notably, formation of cationic micellar nanoassemblies increases the local positive charge density in solution, supporting an effective DNA condensation [38].…”

“…Major efforts in the field of gene therapy were aimed at achieving enhanced stability, prolonged circulation time and controlled gene release of the nanovectors [38]. Amphiphilic cationic A12H5Kn (n = 10 or 15) peptide assembled micelles with hydrophobic alanine residues, forming the core, cationic lysine residues supporting the interaction with charged DNA and histidine residues promoting the endosomal escape of the micelles [43].…”

“…For gene delivery applications, peptide-based micelles offer several advantages like high stability, high therapeutic potency due to efficient gene loading, and small size conducive to deep tumor penetration and cellular uptake [ 38 ]. Notably, formation of cationic micellar nanoassemblies increases the local positive charge density in solution, supporting an effective DNA condensation [ 38 ]. For example, cationic peptide dendrimers with side arm lipid conjugates that were able to self-assemble into micelles and condense siRNA, were introduced as a versatile platform for effective nucleic acid delivery [ 39 ].…”

Development of Polyelectrolyte Complex Nanoparticles-PECNs Loaded with Ampicillin by Means of Polyelectrolyte Complexation and Ultra-High Pressure Homogenization (UHPH)

“…In the case of inorganic NPs, the systems usually reported correspond to metallic nanoparticles (silver, gold, zinc oxide, iron oxide, among others) [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], which can be classified into three groups (I) Metallic Nanostructures (II) Metallic Oxide Nanostructures and (III) Metallic Nanoalloys, which can be produced by chemical, physical and biosynthetic methods [24]. On the other hand, the organic NPs describe a wide variety, where dendrimers [25,26], self-assembling systems (micelles and liposomes) [27][28][29][30] and polymeric nanoparticles are the most used and reported systems [31,32]. Regarding polymeric NPs, these are commonly employed in the biomedical field due to their characteristics of compatibility, biodegradability and low cytotoxicity [24], where natural polymers like chitosan, modified starches and natural gums are very usual [33].…”

Synthetic nucleic acid nanomedicines: A Chinese perspective

“…Shenggang Ding and Yezi You et al . report recent advances regarding employing micelles as a nano‐sized carrier system for gene delivery, the system‐related modifications for cytoplasm release, stability and biocompatibility, and associated clinical trials …”