Design of Smart Nanodiamonds: Introducing pH Sensitivity to Improve Nucleic Acid Carrier Efficiency of Diamoplexes.

ABSTRACT: The mechanism of cellular uptake and intracellular fate of nanodiamond/nucleic acid complexes (diamoplexes) are major determinants of its performance as a gene carrier. Our group designed lysine-nanodiamonds (K-NDs) as vectors for nucleic acid delivery. In this work, we modified the surface of K-NDs with histidine to overcome endo-lysosomal entrapment diamoplexes, the major rate limiting step in gene transfer. Histidine is conjugated onto the NDs in two configurations: lysyl-histidine-NDs (HK-NDs) where histidine is loaded on 100% of the lysine moieties and lysine/lysyl-histidine-NDs (H₅₀K₅₀-NDs) where histidine is loaded on 50% of the lysine moieties. Both HK-NDs and H₅₀K₅₀-NDs maintained the optimum size distribution (i.e., <200 nm) and a ca

SUBMITTER: Alwani S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9501119 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature