Kinetic modeling of plasmid DNA degradation in rat plasma

A major obstacle in gene delivery is the transport of intact plasmid DNA (pDNA) to target sites. We sought to investigate the kinetic processes underlying the degradation of pDNA in a rat plasma model, as this is one of the main components responsible for the clearance of pDNA after intravenous administration. We further sought to construct a complete kinetic model to describe the degradation of all three topoforms (supercoiled, open circular, and linear) of pDNA in a rat plasma model. Supercoiled pDNA was incubated in isolated rat plasma at 37°C in vitro. At various time points, the plasma was assayed by electrophoresis for the amounts of supercoiled, open circular, and full-length linear pDNA remaining. The calculated amounts remaining were fit to linear differential equations describing this process. In this model, pDNA degradation is considered to be a unidirectional process, with supercoiled degrading to open circular and then to the linear topoform. The calculated kinetic parameters suggested that supercoiled pDNA degrades in rat plasma with a half-life of 1.2 minutes, open circular pDNA degrades with a half-life of 21 minutes, and linear pDNA degrades with a half-life of 11 minutes. Complexation of pDNA with liposomes resulted in a portion of the supercoiled plasmid remaining detectable through 5.5 hours.