Characterization of reducible peptide oligomers as carriers for gene delivery.

The stability of DNA-polyplexes and intracellular DNA release are important features of gene delivery systems. To study these features, we have evaluated reducible cysteine-flanked linear lysine and arginine-rich peptides, modified with histidine residues. The reducible disulfide bonds in cysteine flanked peptides and histidine residues should augment DNA release from the peptide-DNA complexes upon disintegration of the reducible bonds. Template polymerization and oxidative polycondensation were applied to obtain peptide oligomers used for DNA-polyplex preparation. The peptides and DNA-peptide complexes were investigated with physical, chemical and transfection measurements. Physicochemical and transfection properties of DNA-polyplexes depended on the amino acid sequence of the peptidic polymers and type of the polymerization. MALDI-TOF analysis of oxidatively polycondensed products revealed several forms of peptide oligomers corresponding to 5-8 amino acid monomers. DNA-peptide particles based on template-polymerized complexes were more resistant to relaxation by negatively charged heparan sulfate than polyplexes formed with oxidatively condensed peptides. Complexes of DNA with the polycations prepared by oxidative polycondensation exhibited a 100-1000-fold higher level of gene expression compared to DNA/template-polymerized peptide complexes. The most efficient transgene expression was shown with arginine-rich polyplexes. Transfection efficacy of the arginine-rich polyplexes was even 10-fold better than that of DNA/PEI complexes. On average, polyplexes based on cysteine-flanked peptide oligomers showed lower cytotoxicity than non-reducible high molecular weight polylysine/DNA particles. We conclude that reducible peptide oligomers provide efficient DNA transfection and have the potential as vehicles for gene delivery.