Role of calcium in gene delivery

Abstract

The treatment of genetic diseases using therapeutic gene transfer is considered to be a significant development. This development has brought with it certain limitations, and the process of overcoming these barriers has seen a drastic change in gene delivery. Many metal ions such as Mg2+, Mn2+, Ba2+ and, most importantly, Ca2+ have been demonstrated to have significant roles in gene delivery. Recently, calcium phosphate alone, or in combination with viral and nonviral vectors, was found to exert a positive effect on gene transfer when incorporated in the colloidal particulate system, which is an advancing approach to gene delivery. This review elaborates on various successful methods of using calcium in gene delivery.

The importance of particle size and DNA condensation salt for calcium phosphate nanoparticle transfection

“…Calcium has a small hydrodynamic radius and therefore a high charge-to-surface area [31] and as such is highly effective in condensing DNA. One might expect changes in surface charge and Zeta potential to affect transfection, however, the charge of the plasmid was found to be very similar in all conditions tested and did not correlate with the transfection results (Fig.…”

Importance of divalent cations in nanolipoplex gene delivery

“…Inorganic particles including divalent cations are an important class of carriers for bioactive molecules. They have excellent storage stability, withstand microbial contamination and are inexpensive 12. These inorganic compounds have various biomedical applications such as vaccination, drug delivery, and gene therapy 13.…”

“…Blood serum is considered to be an aqueous solution supersaturated with respect to calcium phosphate. Due to the presence of proteins and enzymes in biological fluids, extensive complexation of free calcium takes place, thus reducing the actual super‐saturation 12, 15. Calcium also plays an important role in endocytosis,12 which is the major route for internalisation of materials by cells.…”

Calcium-activated gene transfection from DNA/poly(amic acid-co-imide) complexes

“…[39][40] Although PA and PA-I copolymers coupled with DNA alone showed inferior transfection efficiency, the addition of 15 synergistic effect. In all cases, PA-I exhibited significantly higher transfection efficiency than did PA.…”