Insights into siRNA Transfection in Suspension: Efficient Gene Silencing in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Encapsulated in Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel.

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are powerful tools for post-transcriptional gene silencing, which offers enormous opportunities for tissue engineering applications. However, poor serum stability, inefficient intracellular delivery, and inevitable toxicity of transfection reagents are the key barriers for their clinical translation. Thus, innovative strategies that allow safe and efficient intracellular delivery of the nucleic acid drugs at the desired site is urgently needed for a smooth clinical translation of therapeutically appealing siRNA-based technology. In this regard, we have developed an innovative siRNA transfection protocol that employs a short incubation time of just 5 min. This allows easy transfection in suspension followed by transplantation of the cells in a hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel system. We also report here the unique ability of siRNA to bind HA that was quantified by siRNA release and rheological characterization of the HA-hydrogel. Such interactions also showed promising results to deliver functional siRNA in suspension transfection conditions within 30 min using native HA, although removal of excess HA by centrifugation seem to be essential. In the 2D experiments, suspension transfection of hMSCs with RNAiMAX resulted in ≈90% gene silencing (with or without removal of the excess reagent by centrifugation), while HA demonstrated a modest ≈40% gene silencing after removal of excess reagent after 30 min. Transplantation of such transfected cells in the HA-hydrogel system demonstrated an improved knockdown (≈90% and ≈60% with RNAiMAX and HA respectively after 48 h), with lower cytotoxicity (up to 5-days) as determined by PrestoBlue assay. The gene silencing efficiency in the 2D and 3D conditions were also confirmed at the protein levels by Western blot analysis. We postulate this novel transfection method could be applied for in vivo applications as it allows minimal manipulation of cells that are to be transplanted and reduce toxicity.

An Unexpected Role of Hyaluronic Acid in Trafficking siRNA Across the Cellular Barrier: The First Biomimetic, Anionic, Non-Viral Transfection Method.

Circulating nucleic acids, such as short interfering RNA (siRNA), regulate many biological processes; however, the mechanism by which these molecules enter the cell is poorly understood. The role of extracellular-matrix-derived polymers in binding siRNAs and trafficking them across the plasma membrane is reported. Thermal melting, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and computational analysis indicate that hyaluronic acid can stabilize siRNA via hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals interactions. This stabilization facilitated HA size- and concentration-dependent gene silencing in a CD44-positive human osteosarcoma cell line (MG-63) and in human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs). This native HA-based siRNA transfection represents the first report on an anionic, non-viral delivery method that resulted in approximately 60 % gene knockdown in both cell types tested, which correlated with a reduction in translation levels.

Innovative Strategy for 3D Transfection of Primary Human Stem Cells with BMP-2 Expressing Plasmid DNA: A Clinically Translatable Strategy for Ex Vivo Gene Therapy.

Ex vivo gene therapy offers enormous potential for cell-based therapies, however, cumbersome in vitro cell culture conditions have limited its use in clinical practice. We have optimized an innovative strategy for the transient transfection of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) expressing plasmids in suspended human stem cells within 5-min that enables efficient loading of the transfected cells into a 3D hydrogel system. Such a short incubation time for lipid-based DNA nanoparticles (lipoplexes) reduces cytotoxicity and at the same time reduces the processing time for cells to be transplanted. The encapsulated human mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (hMSCs) transfected with BMP-2 plasmid demonstrated high expression of an osteogenic transcription factor, namely RUNX2, but not the chondrogenic factor (SOX9), within the first three days. This activation was also reflected in the 7-day and 21-day experiment, which clearly indicated the induction of osteogenesis but not chondrogenesis. We believe our transient transfection method demonstrated in primary MSCs can be adapted for other therapeutic genes for different cell-based therapeutic applications.

Investigating Tick-borne Flaviviral-like Particles as a Delivery System for Gene Therapy.

BACKGROUND: Research on the biogenesis of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) would benefit gene therapy. Due to specific arrangements of genes along the TBEV genome, its viral-like particles (VLPs) could be exploited as shuttles to deliver their replicon, which carries therapeutic genes, to immune system cells. OBJECTIVE: To develop a flaviviral vector for gene delivery as a part of gene therapy research that can be expressed in secretable VLP suicidal shuttles and provide abundant unique molecular and structural data supporting this gene therapy concept. METHOD: TBEV structural gene constructs of a Swedish Torö strain were cloned into plasmids driven by the promoters CAG and CMV and then transfected into various cell lines, including COS-1 and BHK-21. Time-course sampling of the cells, culture fluid, cell lysate supernatant, and pellet specimens were performed. Western blotting and electron microscopy analyses of collected specimens were used to investigate molecular and structural processing of TBEV structural proteins. RESULTS: Western blotting analysis showed differences between promoters in directing the gene expression of the VLPs constructs. The premature flaviviral polypeptides as well as mature VLPs could be traced. Using electron microscopy, the premature and mature VLP accumulation in cellular compartments-and also endoplasmic reticulum proliferation as a virus factory platform-were observed in addition to secreted VLPs. CONCLUSIONS: The abundant virologic and cellular findings in this study show the natural processing and safety of inserting flaviviral structural genes into suicidal VLP shuttles. Thus, we propose that these VLPs are a suitable gene delivering system model in gene therapy.

Phosphoproteome characterization reveals that Sendai virus infection activates mTOR signaling in human epithelial cells.

Sendai virus (SeV) is a common respiratory pathogen in mice, rats, and hamsters. Host cell recognition of SeV is mediated by pathogen recognition receptors, which recognize viral components and induce intracellular signal transduction pathways that activate the antiviral innate immune response. Viruses use host proteins to control the activities of signaling proteins and their downstream targets, and one of the most important host protein modifications regulated by viral infection is phosphorylation. In this study, we used phosphoproteomics combined with bioinformatics to get a global view of the signaling pathways activated during SeV infection in human lung epithelial cells. We identified altogether 1347 phosphoproteins, and our data shows that SeV infection induces major changes in protein phosphorylation affecting the phosphorylation of almost one thousand host proteins. Bioinformatics analysis showed that SeV infection activates known pathways including MAPK signaling, as well as signaling pathways previously not linked to SeV infection including Rho family of GTPases, HIPPO signaling, and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-signaling pathway. Further, we performed functional studies with mTOR inhibitors and siRNA approach, which revealed that mTOR signaling is needed for both the host IFN response as well as viral protein synthesis in SeV-infected human lung epithelial cells.

NF-κB activation by equine arteritis virus is MyD88 dependent and promotes viral replication.

NF-κB, a family of transcription factors involved in different cell functions and immune responses is targeted by viruses. The mechanism of NF-κB signalling and its role in replication of EAV have not been investigated. We demonstrate that EAV infection in BHK-21 cells activates NF-κB, and this activation was found to be mediated through the MyD88 pathway. Infection of IKKß(-/-) murine embryo fibroblasts (MEFs), which are deficient in NF-κB signalling, resulted in lower virus titre, less cytopathic effect, and reduced expression of viral proteins. These findings implicate the MyD88 pathway in EAV-induced NF-κB activation and suggest that NF-κB activation is essential for efficient replication of EAV.

Impact of Hydrogel Cross-Linking Chemistry on the in Vitro and in Vivo Bioactivity of Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2.

Designing strategies to deliver functional proteins at physiologically relevant concentrations using chemically cross-linked biocompatible hydrogels is a major field of research. However, the impact of cross-linking chemistry on the encapsulated protein bioactivity is rarely studied. Here we examine the two well-known cross-linking reactions namely; hydrazone cross-linking chemistry and thiol-Michael addition reaction to form hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels. As a therapeutic protein, we employed recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) for this study. Incubation of rhBMP-2 with HA functionalized with a thiol diminished phosphorylation of Smad 1/5/8, a signal transducer for osteogenic differntiation, whereas an aldehyde functionalized HA had no effect. This indicates that thiol functionalized polymers indeed has an impact on protein function. To validate this result in an in vivo setting we performed BMP-2 induced bone formation in a rat ectopic model. These experiments revealed that the hydrazone-cross-linked HA-hydrogel induced significantly higher bone formation (18.90 ± 4.25 mm3) as compared to the HA-thiol-Michael hydrogels (1.25 ± 0.52 mm3) after 8 weeks as determined by micro-computed tomography. The histological examination of the neo-bone indicated that hydrazone-hydrogels promoted a better quality of bone formation with improved mineralization and collagen formation as compared to the thiol-Michael hydrogels. We believe such a direct comparison of two cross-linking chemistries will provide new insight for developing biomaterials for protein delivery for in vivo applications.

Equine arteritis virus induced cell death is associated with activation of the intrinsic apoptotic signalling pathway.

Equine arteritis virus (EAV) causes a respiratory and reproductive disease in horses, equine viral arteritis. Though cell death in infection with EAV is considered to occur by apoptosis, the underlying molecular mechanism has not been extensively elucidated. We investigated the expression of mRNA of pro-apoptotic and caspase genes during EAV infection in BHK21 cells, a well-established cell type for EAV replication. Using a SYBR Green real-time PCR, mRNA of p53, Bax, caspase 3 and caspase 9 were found up-regulated in a time dependent manner in EAV infected cells. Western blot analysis for caspase 3 and caspase 9 showed expression of cleaved forms of these proteins during EAV infection. In addition, a luminescence-based cell assay for caspase 3/7 activation as a hallmark in apoptosis confirmed apoptotic cell death. The findings demonstrate that cell death in EAV infected BHK21 cells results from apoptosis mediated through the intrinsic signalling pathway.