Reduction of Oncogene Expression in Cancer Cells Using siRNA Delivery Systems

Abstract

Recently, siRNA has been emerging as new therapeutic agents for various diseases such as cancers and infectious diseases. However, the evaluation for delivery systems for siRNA has not been fully done. In this study, we designed and delivered siRNA of oncogenic E6 and E7 proteins to several cell lines and tested the delivery efficiencies of various cationic nonviral delivery vectors. Of cationic delivery systems tested in this study, lipid-based Lipofectamine revealed higher delivery efficiency of siRNA to cervical cancer cell line, SiHa, compared to other delivery systems. Notably, the polyethylenimine, which showed the comparable delivery efficiencies in plasmid DNA, did not show significant delivery of siRNA in cervical cancer cells. These results indicate that the mechanisms involved in siRNA delivery might be different from those in plasmid DNA delivery, and that cationic lipid-based delivery vehicles deliver siRNA with higher efficiency to intracellular target sites.