A recombinant H1 histone-based system for efficient delivery of nucleic acids.

We describe here a unique transfer system based on a truncated form of the human linker histone H1F4 for the delivery of nucleic acids to a variety of cells. The efficiency of truncated histone H1.4F was assessed using both primary mammalian and immortalised insect and mammalian cell lines. Our results indicated that recombinant histone H1.4F was able to deliver DNA, dsRNA and siRNA in all cells tested. Quantitative analysis based on reporter gene expression or silencing of target genes revealed that the transfection efficiency of histone H1.4F was comparable to, or better than, liposome-based systems. Notably, the efficiency of histone H1.4F was associated with very low toxicity for transfected cells. The human H1.4F recombinant protein is easily purified in large-scale from bacterial lysates using inexpensive simplified processing. This versatile transfection system represents an important advance in the field of gene delivery and an improvement over earlier nucleic acid delivery methods.