Vectores lipo-polimericos para transferencia de dna en celulas tumorales de colon

Abstract

#TITULO: VECTORES LIPO-POLIMERICOS PARA TRANSFERENCIA DE DNA EN CÉLULAS TUMORALES DE COLON #RESUMEN: LIPO-POLYMERIC SYSTEMS TO DELIVER DNA INTO COLON CANCEROUS CELLS. Gene therapy is a therapeutic technique to insert a functional gene in the cells of a human patient to correct a genetic defect or to endow to the cells a new function. Gene therapy focuses on the therapeutic use of genes delivered to cells, and promises considerable advances in the treatment of several important diseases. The main objective of this study is the development, optimization and characterization of a vector composed of polyethylenimine (PEÍ), cationic liposomes and DNA (lipopolyplexes) that can deliver genetic material into tumour cells. Lipopolyplexes are promising non-viral gene delivery vectors for the treatment of cancer because they can be used to deliver the therapeutic gene to the patient's target cells. We studied the association of folic acid with lipopolyplexes in order to prepare targeted complexes that can deliver genetic material into cancerous cells. The folate receptor (FR), which is absent in most normal tissues and elevated in over 90% ovarian carcinomas and at a high frequently in other human malignancies, is an attractive tumor-selective target. Cell culture experiments nave shown that lipopolyplexes resulted in higher transfection efficiencies than polyplexes and lipoplexes in transfecting HepG2 and CT26 cells in the presence of 60% serum. in vivo gene expression using lipopolyplexes was much greater than using naked DNA, especially in the liver, and no signs of toxicity were noticed when lipopolyplexes were injected.