Multi-walled carbon nanotubes for plasmid delivery into Escherichia coli cells

Abstract

Introduction of foreign genes into bacterial cells (transformation) is used for supplementing defective genes or providing additional biological functions. Transformation can be achieved using either chemical or physical methods, e.g., electroporation. Bulk electroporation offers several advantages over chemical methods, including high transformation efficiency, but its application is limited due to the high numbers of cells and plasmids needed as a result of the high death rate of cells during this process, and the difficulty in electroporating single cells. Synthetic inorganic gene nanocarriers have received limited attention in the transformation of bacterial cells. Here we present a plasmid delivery system based on water dispersible multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that can simultaneously target the bacterial surface and deliver the plasmids into the cells via temporary nanochannels across the cell envelope. Transformation experiments performed on E. coli provide evidence for the high potential of CNTs for nanoscale cell electroporation.

In vitrocytotoxicity of functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes for targeted gene delivery applications

“…Carbon nanotubes have been shown to have the potential to carry molecules and enter mammalian and bacterial cells (Pantarotto et al 2004b, Gao et al 2006. They could be beneficially used to deliver proteins (Hu et al 2004, Kam et al 2004, Pantarotto et al 2004a) genes and nucleic acids (Lu et al 2004, Rojas-Chapana et al 2005 and other biomolecules into cells. They can be functionalized with a variety of molecules for specific purposes.…”

Photothermal antimicrobial nanotherapy and nanodiagnostics with self‐assembling carbon nanotube clusters

“…CNTs were observed to bind to bacteria [20] and their high binding affinity to bacteria has been exploited to use them as bacterial filters [21]. In addition, the ability of CNTs to be spontaneously internalized by specific cells has recently stimulated numerous studies on transporting peptides, DNA, and RNA inside cells, both eukaryotic and prokaryotic, for tissue specific gene/drug delivery [12,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Furthermore, owing to their absorbance of near-infrared (NIR) radiation [31] and relative transparency of most bio-tissues to NIR radiation [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], CNTs were suggested as promising agents for in vivo PT energy sensing and targeting of cancer cells [12,13].…”

Polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes impregnated with silver nanoparticles show improved biofouling resistance and virus removal

“…Another study with Escherichia coli demonstrated that MWCNTs are able to form temporary "nanochannels" in the cell membrane, which lead to a decrease in cell viability (Rojas-Chapana et al, 2005). Given the antimicrobial effects of nanotubes, CNTs immobilized within the membrane skin might serve as a basis for inhibiting bacterial growth and reducing biofouling.…”