The intracellular trafficking mechanism of Lipofectamine-based transfection reagents and its implication for gene delivery.

ABSTRACT: Lipofectamine reagents are widely accepted as "gold-standard" for the safe delivery of exogenous DNA or RNA into cells. Despite this, a satisfactory mechanism-based explanation of their superior efficacy has remained mostly elusive thus far. Here we apply a straightforward combination of live cell imaging, single-particle tracking microscopy, and quantitative transfection-efficiency assays on live cells to unveil the intracellular trafficking mechanism of Lipofectamine/DNA complexes. We find that Lipofectamine, contrary to alternative formulations, is able to efficiently avoid active intracellular transport along microtubules, and the subsequent entrapment and degradation of the payload within acidic/digestive lysosomal compartments. This result is achieved by random Brownian motion of Lip

SUBMITTER: Cardarelli F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4863168 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature