Hydrophobically modified polyethylenimine-based ternary complexes for targeting brain tumor: stability, in vitro and in vivo studies.

ABSTRACT

Hydrophobic modification of low molecular weight polyethylenimine (PEI 2 kDa) by cholic acid (ChA) was done to obtain PEI2-ChA. The nanoplexes of PEI2-ChA with gWIZ-GFP demonstrated increase transfection efficiency (∼27%) in NT8e cell lines. The cell-cycle analysis of NT8e cells (p53 mutant) treated with transferrin containing nanoplexes showed increased apoptosis of cells. In vitro protein expression revealed expression of exogenous p53 protein. In vivo imaging of mice showed localized signal for GFP protein in brain region. The tumors of mice treated with transferrin containing nanoplexes of PEI2-ChA were ∼5 times smaller in size than the tumor of untreated animals.