PEG修饰对PLL-EGF基因载体靶向结合作用的影响

聚阳离子基因载体系统由于安全性好和便于设计等优点,近年来在基因治疗中的应用发展迅速.在进行基因药物的体内靶向输送时,目前国际上主要通过在基因输送系统中修饰聚乙二醇(PEG)和靶向分子来提高体内输送的稳定性和靶向性.PEG的修饰可能会遮蔽靶向分子的功能呈现,因此建立定量分析方法评价PEG修饰对靶向结合作用的影响非常重要.将连接有表皮生长因子(EGF)的聚赖氨酸(PLL)基因载体作为研究模型,建立BIAcore检测方法,比较PLL-EGF,PEG7000修饰的PLL-EGF,PEG20000修饰的PLL-EGF对表皮生长因子受体(EGFR)的结合和解离速率,评价PEG修饰对PLL-EGF靶向功能呈现的影响.结果表明,PEG7000的修饰降低了EGF和EGFR之间的结合速率,提高了解离速率,整体减弱了靶向分子的靶向结合能力.PEG20000的修饰进一步减弱靶向分子功能的呈现.因此在进行靶向型聚阳离子基因输送系统设计时,考察PEG修饰对靶向结合能力的影响程度非常重要.该研究结果也对其他基因载体系统的设计提供必要的参考.

The Influence of PEG Modification on EGF-PLL Binding Capacities to EGFR

Cationic polymers are being developed quickly as gene delivery vectors. For in vivo gene delivery, the cationic polymers are usually further modified by hydrophilic polymer grafting or ligand conjugation, which have been shown to increase the vector stability, gene delivery efficiency and specificity greatly. Some previous research had shown that modified hydrophilic polymer may partly shield the targeting ligand and result in poor delivery specificity. Developing a method to evaluate the influence of PEG modification on targeting delivery is particularly critical to cationic polymer design and gene therapy development. One of most commonly used cationic polymer polylysine (PLL) was chosen as a model. Targeting ligand epidermal growth factor(EGF)was conjugated with PLL to form PLL-EGF. Then hydrophilic polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) with molecular mass 7 000 and 20 000 were used to modify PLL-EGF respectively to generate PEG7000-g-PLL-EGF and PEG20000-g-PLL-EGF. In BIAcore experiments, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was conjugated onto BIAcore chip and various PEG modified PLL-EGF solutions were flowed over the chip. By observing the change of RU value, the specific interaction of EGF to EGFR was compared. Compared with PLL-EGF, PEG modified PLL-EGF showed lower association rate and higher disassociation rate to EGFR. Furthermore, compared to PEG7000 modified PLL-EGF, PEG20000 modified PLL-EGF got lower association rate and higher disassociation rate to EGFR. The Scatchard analysis results showed that the interactions between EGFR and PLL-EGF or PEG-PLL-EGF are non-linear. It can be concluded that PEG modification indeed reduced the association rate and enhanced the dissociation rate of EGF to EGFR. The length of PEG chain was also a key factor to influence interaction between ligand and receptor. The results showed that it was critical important to evaluate the influence of PEG modification on delivery specificities. The BIAcore method developed in this paper can successfully evaluate the influence, which would be important for cationic polymer design and its application as potential non-viral gene delivery vectors.