Single subcutaneous administration of RGDK-lipopeptide:rhPDGF-B gene complex heals wounds in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Development of effective therapeutics for chronic wounds remains a formidable clinical challenge. Deficiency of growth factors is of paramount importance among the multitude of factors contributing to the pathogenesis of diabetic wounds. Clinical interest has been witnessed in the past for exogenous applications of platelet derived growth factor B (PDGF-B) in chronic nonhealing wounds. However, accomplishing even modest favorable clinical effects in such topical applications requires large and repeated doses of PDGF-B proteins. Chronic wounds are being increasingly circumvented by gene therapy approach and to this end, cationic liposomes are emerging as promising nonviral carriers for delivering various growth factors encoding therapeutic genes to wound beds. However, as in case of topical application of growth factors, all the prior studies on the use of cationic liposomes in nonviral gene therapy of wounds involved repeated injections of cationic liposome:cDNA complexes over several weeks for ensuring complete wound healing. Herein, we show that a single subcutaneous administration of an electrostatic complex of rhPDGF-B plasmid, integrin receptor selective RGDK-lipopeptide 1 and cholesterol (as auxiliary lipid) is capable of healing wounds in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats (as model of chronic wounds). Western blot analysis revealed significant expression of rhPDGF-B in mouse fibroblast cells transfected with RGDK-lipopeptide 1:rhPDGF-B lipoplex. The transfection efficiencies of the RGDK-lipopeptide 1 in mouse and human fibroblast cells preincubated with various monoclonal anti-integrin receptor antibodies support the notion that the cellular uptake of the RGDK-lipopeptide 1:DNA complexes in fibroblast cells is likely to be selectively mediated by alpha5beta1 integrin receptors. Findings in the histopathological stainings using both hematoxylin and eosin (H & E) as well as Masson's Trichrome staining revealed a significantly higher degree of epithelization, keratization, fibrocollagenation and blood vessel formation in rats treated with RGDK-lipopeptide 1:rhPDGF compared to those in rats treated with vehicle alone.