Glutathione hybrid poly (beta-amino ester)-plasmid nanoparticles for enhancing gene delivery and biosafety

Introduction CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology has significantly advanced gene therapy, with gene vectors being one of the key factors for its success. Poly (beta-amino ester) (PBAE), a distinguished non-viral cationic gene vector, is known to elevate intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, which may cause cytotoxicity and, consequently, impact gene transfection efficacy (T.E.). Objectives To develop a simple but efficient strategy to improve the gene delivery ability and biosafety of PBAE both in vivo and in vitro . Methods We used glutathione (GSH), a clinically utilized drug with capability to modulating intracellular ROS level, to prepare a hybrid system with PBAE-plasmid nanoparticles (NPs). This system was characterized by flow cytometry, RNA-seq, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequencing in vitro , and its safety and efficacy in vivo was evaluated by imaging, PCR, Sanger sequencing and histology analysis. Results The particle size of GSH-PBAE-plasmid NPs were 168.31 nm with a ζ-potential of 15.21 mV. An enhancement in T.E. and gene editing efficiency, ranging from 10 % to 100 %, was observed compared to GSH-free PBAE-plasmid NPs in various cell lines. In vitro results proved that GSH-PBAE-plasmid NPs reduced intracellular ROS levels by 25 %–40 %, decreased the total number of upregulated/downregulated genes from 4,952 to 789, and significantly avoided the disturbance in gene expression related to cellular oxidative stress-response and cell growth regulation signaling pathway compared to PBAE-plasmid NPs. They also demonstrated lower impact on the cell cycle, slighter hemolysis, and higher cell viability after gene transfection. Furthermore, GSH hybrid PBAE-plasmid NPs exhibited superior safety and improved tumor suppression ability in an Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-infected murine tumor model, via targeting cleavage the EBV related oncogene by delivering CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system and down-regulating the expression levels. This simple but effective strategy is expected to promote clinical applications of non-viral vector gene delivery.