3and down-regulated expression, indicative of an inner cell mass-to-epiblast transition phenotype (22)

3and down-regulated expression, indicative of an inner cell mass-to-epiblast transition phenotype (22). 6. We hypothesized that enhanced cell binding coupled with a cell-penetrating peptide would significantly enhance cell uptake. This would also indicate that further charging of P21-fused proteins via a PTD would enhance uptake if functioning primarily through heparan sulfate binding. To test this, we combined both moieties in one molecule (Fig. 1 0.05) (Fig. 1 0.05) without a decrease in viability. Therefore, both protein and detergent-soluble moieties around the cell membrane affect the efficacy of P21 and PTD synergy in GET. Synergy Between HDBs and PTDs Is usually a General Phenomenon. To determine whether P21 had unique activity or whether other natural HBDs elicit the same synergy with PTDs, we probed the literature and constructed a series of other mRFP-GET proteins with HBDs taken from different growth-factor families and extracellular matrix proteins (and and = 6. Transduction of NIH3t3:LSL-eGFP cells with SIN Cre lentiviruses to overexpress transgenically led to near-complete (92 6%; 0.001) activation of eGFP expression in all cells, confirming the power of this system (Fig. 2 0.05) at the highest doses (500 g/mL; Fig. 2 0.01). GET-Cre (P21-mR-Cre-8R) required as little as 1 min incubation RHPS4 with cells at a low dose (1 g/mL; 30 nM) to elicit recombination (4.3 2.5%; 0.05), confirming that binding and internalization is an efficient and rapid process. For a moderate dose (10 g/mL; 300 nM), GET achieved a complete functional delivery and recombined all NIH3t3; this is 15-fold ( 0.01) above PTD-only levels and 340-fold higher than mR-Cre ( 0.001) (Fig. 2 and expression, reduced expression, and retain expression. Error bars RHPS4 indicate SE. = 6. We used CGR-8 mESCs to determine whether GET-mediated delivery can sustain their pluripotent self-renewing phenotype with the withdrawal of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). We delivered GET NANOG-cargo (P21-mR-NANOG-8R) in an assay (22) comparable to CT96 that used to initially isolate the role of in mESCs (23). P21-mR-NANOG-8R rescued pluripotency-associated alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity in significant numbers of CGR-8Z, even with relatively low doses (10 g/mL) (Fig. 3 0.001) (Fig. 3expression to a similar level (albeit lower than in LIF-containing cultures), indicative of retention of pluripotency (both 0.05) (Fig. 3and down-regulated expression, indicative of an inner cell mass-to-epiblast transition phenotype (22). A cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) version (mR-NANOG-8R) of this protein did not confer LIF independence to cells ( 0.01) (Fig. 4 and expression ( 0.01 and 0.05, respectively) (Fig. 4expression and skeletal muscle-specific expression. Error bars indicate SE. (and = 6. GET Can Be Coupled to a Variety of Clinically Useful Cargoes. Because GET can effectively deliver functional recombinant proteins, we assessed whether the P21 and 8R peptide moieties can be linked to a variety of other cargoes to enhance intracellular delivery. We initially tested other protein cargoes (Fig. 5 and and and and = 6. We hypothesized the same approach could be used for nucleic acid delivery. We used the pan-nucleic acid interaction sequence LK15 and synthesized GET-LK15 peptides (Fig. 6). After charge ratio optimization for each test nucleic acid, we were able to demonstrate significant transfection activity for P21-LK15-8R for plasmid DNA (pDNA; transfecting SIN-GFP), altered nucleotide mRNA [transfecting GFP modRNA (20)], and small inhibitory RNAs (siRNAs; FAM-labeled GAPDH siRNA). The transfection efficiencies of optimized protocols were similar to RHPS4 Lipofectamine 2000 (LIPO2000; Invitrogen), and GET-transfection retained activity in serum-containing transfections in which LIPO2000 was significantly inhibited. Colloidal stability of GET peptide/nucleic acid particles remained with addition of the serum, demonstrating that there was no loss of stability (by aggregation), and no efficiency was lost as a result of the serum-rich environment. Open in a separate windows Fig. 6. GET of nucleic acids. ( 0.05. Experiments were completed six occasions (= 6), and data depict mean values (six replicates of duplicates) with SD or for quantitative PCR with SEM. Supplementary Material Supplementary FileClick here to view.(5.3M, pdf) Acknowledgments We thank Dr. Andrew D. Johnson (University of Nottingham) and Dr. Catherine Merry (University of Manchester) for helpful discussions. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Communitys Seventh Framework Programme.