Lanthanide-doped chitosan nanospheres as cell nuclei illuminator and fluorescent nonviral vector for plasmid DNA delivery

摘要

Lanthanide-doped chitosan nanospheres (LDCNs) and lanthanide-Fe _3O _4-doped chitosan nanospheres (Fe _3O _4-LDCNs) are fabricated and show fluorescence, MRI effectiveness and desirable biocompatibility. Superior to most nanoparticles that were found retained in cytoplasmic organelles rather than the nucleus, the prepared chitosan nanospheres preferentially enter and illuminate the cell nuclei. Complexation of plasmid DNA (pDNA) to the nanospheres was accomplished via electrostatic forces between positively charged chitosan and negatively charged pDNA. Satisfactory results of the complexation indicate that the prepared chitosan nanospheres can serve as a potential fluorescent nonviral vector for pDNA delivery that can fulfill gene delivery and transfer efficiency assessment simultaneously, without an additional step of tagging fluorophores to the vectors carried out in fabrications of currently available pDNA delivery vectors.