自杀基因联合中医药疗法治疗肿瘤的设想

自杀基因疗法是一种具有良好应用前景的肿瘤治疗新措施。但如何有效提高疗效是目前仍须解决的关键性问题。由于免疫机制在自杀基因疗法旁杀伤效应中的重要作用，激活荷瘤机体的免疫功能，改善自杀基因抗肿瘤作用的炎症免疫微环境，是提高肿瘤自杀基因疗法疗效的主要策略。中医中药在调节机体免疫状态方面具有肯定的作用，与其他方法比较具有明显优势。因而，将自杀基因疗法与中医中药联合应用，有可能起到提高肿瘤自杀基因疗法疗效，防止肿瘤复发的作用。提出了自杀基因联合中医药疗法治疗肿瘤的新设想，为肿瘤基因治疗提供了一种新的思路和模式。     

血瘀证兔模型血管内皮细胞中一氧化氮合酶 的基因表达及其分泌一氧化氮的变化

【目的】了解实验性血瘀证动物模型血管内皮细胞中一氧化氮合酶(NOS)的基因表达及其分泌NO的变化。【方法】用半定量RT-PCR方法检测模型组体内血管内皮细胞及体外培养的细胞中组成型一氧化氮合酶mRNA的表达,并相应测定分泌的NO水平。【结果】与对照组比较,模型组兔体内血管内皮细胞中组成型NOS(cNOS)基因表达以及血浆和原代培养液中NO水平皆明显下降(P＜0.01),同期血浆中NO含量与内皮细胞中cNOSmRNA的表达水平呈正相关(r=0.739,P＜0.01)。两组间体外培养的传代细胞中cNOS基因表达及培养液上清中NO含量无明显差异(P＞0.05),但NO水平都比各自原代培养液中的明显升高(P＜0.01,P＜0.05)。【结论】短期内血瘀证兔模型体内内源性NO水平降低主要是cNOS基因表达下降导致的,随时间的延长,不排除诱导型NOS(iNOS)及体内其他因素对分泌NO的综合影响。     

血瘀证兔血清对培养的血管内皮细胞活性因子基因表达的影响

【目的】探索血瘀证形成和发展过程中血管内皮细胞活性因子内皮素和一氧化氮 (NO)改变的分子机理。【方法】用半定量RT -PCR方法 ,观察血瘀证兔模型血清对体外培养的血管内皮细胞内皮素 (ET)和组成型NO合成酶 (constitutivenitricoxidesynthase ,cNOS)基因表达的影响。【结果】血瘀证动物模型血清导致体外培养的内皮细胞中ET - 1mRNA表达升高 (P <0 .0 1) ,cNOSmRNA表达下降 (P <0 .0 1) ,两者呈显著负相关 (r=- 0 .857,P <0 .0 1)。【结论】血管内皮细胞中ET基因高表达及cNOS基因低表达导致的二者平衡失调在血瘀证形成和发展过程中起着重要作用。     

豚鼠内淋巴囊上皮细胞Na+,K+-ATP酶不同β亚基的mRNA表达

目的　进一步研究内淋巴囊上皮细胞Na ,K -ATP酶不同 β亚基的表达。方法　采用豚鼠内淋巴囊冰冻切片、原位杂交的方法检测Na ,K -ATP酶不同 β亚基mRNA在内淋巴囊上皮细胞中的表达。结果　在内淋巴囊上皮细胞胞浆内可见Na ,K -ATP酶不同 β亚基的阳性颗粒 ,β1亚基表达较弱 ,β2 亚基表达较强。结论　结合其他报道 ,内淋巴囊上皮细胞具有多种亚基异构体组成的Na ,K -ATP酶的表达 ,而结肠上皮、肾小管上皮的Na ,K -ATP酶几乎仅有α1β1型 ,提示其离子转运过程可能不同。     

Review: Bioresorbable polymeric stents: current status and future promise

Metal stents and, more recently, polymer-coated metal stents are used to stabilize dissections, eliminate vessel recoil, and guide remodeling after balloon angioplasty and other treatments for arterial disease. Bioresorbable polymeric stents are being developed to improve the biocompatibility and the drug reservoir capacity of metal stents, and to offer a transient alternative to the permanent metallic stent implant. Following a brief review of metal stent technology, the emerging class of expandable, bioresorbable polymeric stents is described, with emphasis on developments in the authors' laboratory.     

Alginate-Graft-PEI as a Gene Delivery Vector with High Efficiency and Low Cytotoxicity

To overcome the efficiency–cytotoxicity dilemma of native PEI and incorporate the advantages of alginate, we designed a novel gene vector by grafting PEI 2000 onto alginate, an anionic polysaccharide with excellent biocompatibility. The alginate-graft-PEI (Alg-g-PEI) was successfully synthesized and then characterized by elemental analysis, ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR. The M _w of Alg-g-PEI is ca. 17 000. Acid–base titration confirmed that Alg-g-PEI retained the buffering capacity of native PEI. The DNA binding ability of the polymer was confirmed by gel retardation assay. DSL analysis showed that Alg-g-PEI had a particle size and zeta-potential similar to PEI 25K. AFM detected a clear and well-shaped morphology of the complexes. Additionally, Alg-g-PEI exhibited lower cytotoxicity than PEI 25K in BEL7402, MSC and RVMSC cells. Compared with PEI 25K, Alg-g-PEI had comparable or even higher transfection efficiency. Similarly, Alg-g-PEI-mediated VEGF expression was significantly higher compared with PEI 25K-mediated VEGF expression. All together, our results suggest that Alg-g-PEI has a potential to be a safe and efficient agent for gene therapy.     

A Comparative Evaluation of Disulfide-Linked and Hydrophobically-Modified PEI for Plasmid Delivery

Non-viral gene therapy has become an important approach for treatment of hereditary and acquired diseases as a result of better understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in disease development. To design more effective gene carriers, plasmid DNA (pDNA) delivery to 293T cells was investigated by using two types of polymeric carriers; polymer constructed with disulfide (–S–S–) linkages and polymers modified with hydrophobic moieties. The base polymer used for this study was 2-kDa poly(ethylene imine) (PEI2), a relatively cell-compatible but ineffective gene carrier. The –S–S– linking was achieved via Michael addition reaction using cystamine bisacrylamide (CBA), whereas hydrophobic modification by N-acylation of PEI2 amines with palmitoyl chloride (PA). The cytotoxicity of the polymers was found to be lower than that of the 25-kDa branched PEI, but both types of modifications increased the toxicity of PEI2 to some extent. The polymers were able to form polyplexes with pDNA with variable hydrodynamic sizes (130–600 nm) and ζ-potential (3.6–20.9 mV). Based on the expression of the reporter gene Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (EGFP), disulfide linking significantly increased the efficiency of native PEI2, which was not effective on its own. The PA-modified PEI2 was also effective for gene delivery, but disulfide linkage of this polymer did not increase its efficiency any further. Our results showed that hydrophobic modification of 2-kDa PEI significantly improved its transfection efficiency but improvements in transfection efficiency as a result of disulfide linking was dependent on the nature of the polymeric building blocks.     

PEG- and PDMAEG-Graft-Modified Branched PEI as Novel Gene Vector: Synthesis,Characterization and Gene Transfection

The cytotoxicity of polyethylenimine (PEI) was a dominating obstacle to its application. Introduction of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) blocks to PEI is one of the strategies to alleviate the cytotoxocity of PEI. However, it is well known that the transfection efficiency of PEGylated PEI is decreased to some extent compared to the corresponding PEI. Thus, the aim of our study was to enhance the transfection efficiency of PEGylated PEI. A series of tri-block co-polymers, PEG-g-PEI-g-poly(dimethylaminoethyl L-glutamine) (PEG-g-PEI-g-PDMAEG), as novel vectors for gene therapy was synthesized and evaluated. PEG-g-PEI was first obtained by linking PEG and PEI using isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) as coupling reagent. The anionic co-polymerization of γ-benzyl-L-glutamate N-carboxyanhydride (BLG-NCA) using PEG-g-PEI as a macro-initiator was carried out, followed by aminolysis with 2-dimethylaminoethylamine to obtain the target water-soluble tri-block co-polymer. The structures of the polymers were confirmed by FT-IR and ¹H-NMR. The influence of the molecular weight of PEI and the length of the PDMAEG chain on the physicochemical properties and transfection activity of polymer/DNA was evaluated. All PEI derivates were revealed to compact plasmid DNA effectively to give polyplexes with suitable size (approx. 100 nm) and moderate zeta potentials (10–15 mV) at N/P ratios over 10. The PEG-g-PEI-g-PDMAEG tri-block co-polymers displayed particularly low cytotoxicity, even at high concentration, reflecting an improved safety profile compared to PEI 25k. Gene transfection efficiency of PEG-g-PEI-g-PDMAEG on HeLa in the presence and absence of serum was determined. Remarkably, the transfection activity of PEG-g-PEI (10k)-g-PDMAEG (PPP-4)/DNA polyplex formulations was nearly twofold higher than PEI 25k/DNA formulations in vitro, and the transfection efficiency was less affected by the presence of serum. These results indicated that the synthesized PEG-g-PEI-g-PDMAEG tri-block co-polymers are promising candidates as carriers for gene delivery.     

Functional evaluation of poly-(N-ρ-vinylbenzyl-O-β-Dgalactopyranosyl-[1-4]-D-gluconamide)(PVLA) as a liver specific carrier

Hepatocytes express the specific C-type lectin, asialoglycoprotein (ASGP) receptor, on the surface to remove the ligand-bearing proteins from circulation. The specific expression and ligand specificity are thought to be the ideal characters for the target of drug or gene delivery. Various galactose-bearing molecules were synthesized for this purpose. However, the biological or functional interaction of these molecules with the ASGP receptor still remains to be elucidated. In this study, we evaluated the functional ability of synthetic galactose polymer ligand, poly-(N-ρ-vinylbenzyl-O-β-Dgalactopyranosyl-[1-4]-D-gluconamide) (PVLA), to interact with recombinant ASGP receptors using mouse ASGP receptor (mouse hepatic lectin; MHL) gene-transfected CHO cells. PVLA-coated beads bound to and were endocytosed by the whole (MHL-1/-2) ASGP receptor-expressing CHO cells like hepatocytes while PVMA (poly-(N-ρ-vinylbenzyl-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-[1-4]-D-gluconamide) did not. Interestingly, PVLA-coated beads were also endocytosed by either MHL-1 or MHL-2 alone expressing cells, which are known to be incapable of endocytosing natural ligands. In addition, the endocytosis of PVLA-coated beads by MHL-expressing CHO cells or primary hepatocytes was inhibited only by soluble PVLA but not by the same galactose molecular concentration of soluble asialofetuin. Furthermore, PVLA-coated beads were endocytosed by primary hepatocyte to a significantly higher degree than asialofetuin-coated beads in vitro. These results suggest that PVLA has higher affinity to the ASGP receptor than the natural ligands in blood. Consistently, it was demonstrated that intravenously injected FITC-labeled PVLA but not PVMA drastically accumulated in parenchymal cells of the liver in vivo. Taken together, PVLA exhibiting higher affinity with hepatocytes than natural ligands is thought to be an attractive and practical carrier-ligand for liver targeting.     

Novel Quaternized Chitosan and Polymeric Micelles With Cross-Linked Ionic Cores for Prolonged Release of Minocycline

Novel multifunctional octadecyl quaternized carboxymethyl chitosans (OQCMCs) with varying degree of quaternary substitution (DS) and molecular mass were prepared and compared with quaternized chitosan. OQCMCs exhibited excellent solubility both in water and organic solvents. Nanoparticles of OQCMCs offered many advantages, such as easier fabrication and modulation of their size and degree of positive charge, and a lower cytotoxic effect compared with PEI (25 kDa). DNA can be successfully adsorbed on its surface. Electrostatic attraction of carboxymethyl and quaternary groups in OQCMCs was utilized as micellar template for the synthesis of cross-linked micelles. Formation and characteristics of OQCMC polymeric micelles were studied by fluorescence spectroscopy, tensiometry, SEM, TEM and particle size analysis. Self-assembled OQCMC micelles were evaluated as carrier of the lipophilic drug, minocycline hydrochloride (MH). MH was incorporated into cross-linked ionic cores of micelles with remarkably high efficiency (22.7%, w/w). MH-loaded OQCMC polymeric micelles exhibited a slow steady release profile over a 1-week period at 37°C. The OQCMC micelles are potentially useful for gene and lipophilic drug delivery applications.