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Nano Research 2012, 5(10): 703-709 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-012-0254-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 15 September 2012

Ultra-Small Graphene Oxide Functionalized with Polyethylenimine (PEI) for Very Efficient Gene Delivery in Cell and Zebrafish Embryos

Show Author's Information Xiang Zhou1,3,§,  Fabrice Laroche4,5,§,  Gerda E. M. Lamers4,  Vincenzo Torraca4,  Patrick Voskamp1,  Tao Lu3,  Fuqiang Chu2,  Herman P. Spaink4,5( ),  Jan Pieter Abrahams1( ),  Zunfeng Liu1,2,6( )
Biophysical Structural ChemistryCell Observatory, Leiden Institute of ChemistryLeiden2333 CCthe Netherlands
School of pharmaceutical engineering and life scienceChangzhou UniversityChangzhou213164China
State Key Laboratory of Natural MedicinesDepartment of Organic ChemistryChina Pharmaceutical UniversityNanjing210009China
The Institute of Biology LeidenGorlaeus LaboratoriaLeiden University2333 CCLeidenthe Netherlands
Department of Molecular Biology and GeneticsAarhus UniversityCentre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling (CARB)8000Aarhus CDenmark
Biomedical Research CenterJiangnan Graphene Research InstituteChangzhou213100China

§These authors contributed equally to this work

Keywords:
graphene, Gene delivery, DNA, zebrafish, Gene expression
Cite this article:
Zhou X, Laroche F, Lamers GEM, et al. Ultra-Small Graphene Oxide Functionalized with Polyethylenimine (PEI) for Very Efficient Gene Delivery in Cell and Zebrafish Embryos. Nano Research, 2012, 5(10): 703-709. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-012-0254-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Efficient DNA delivery is essential for introducing new genes into living cells. However, effective virus-based systems carry risks and efficient synthetic systems that are non-toxic remain to be discovered. The bottle-neck in synthetic systems is cytotoxicity, caused by the high concentration of DNA-condensing compounds required for efficient uptake of DNA. Here we report a polyethyleneimine (PEI) grafted ultra-small graphene oxide (PEI-g-USGO) for transfection. By removing the free PEI and ensuring a high PEI density on small sized graphene, we obtained very high transfection efficiencies combined with very low cytotoxicity. Plasmid DNA could be transfected into mammalian cell lines with up to 95% efficiency and 90% viability. Transfection in zebrafish embryos was 90%, with high viability, compared to efficiencies of 30% or lower for established transfection technologies. This result suggests a novel approach to the design of synthetic gene delivery vehicles for research and therapy.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Ultra-Small Graphene Oxide Functionalized with Polyethylenimine (PEI) for Very Efficient Gene Delivery in Cell and Zebrafish Embryos

Show Author's information Xiang Zhou1,3,§, Fabrice Laroche4,5,§, Gerda E. M. Lamers4, Vincenzo Torraca4, Patrick Voskamp1, Tao Lu3, Fuqiang Chu2, Herman P. Spaink4,5( ), Jan Pieter Abrahams1( ), Zunfeng Liu1,2,6( )
Biophysical Structural ChemistryCell Observatory, Leiden Institute of ChemistryLeiden2333 CCthe Netherlands
School of pharmaceutical engineering and life scienceChangzhou UniversityChangzhou213164China
State Key Laboratory of Natural MedicinesDepartment of Organic ChemistryChina Pharmaceutical UniversityNanjing210009China
The Institute of Biology LeidenGorlaeus LaboratoriaLeiden University2333 CCLeidenthe Netherlands
Department of Molecular Biology and GeneticsAarhus UniversityCentre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling (CARB)8000Aarhus CDenmark
Biomedical Research CenterJiangnan Graphene Research InstituteChangzhou213100China

§These authors contributed equally to this work

Abstract

Efficient DNA delivery is essential for introducing new genes into living cells. However, effective virus-based systems carry risks and efficient synthetic systems that are non-toxic remain to be discovered. The bottle-neck in synthetic systems is cytotoxicity, caused by the high concentration of DNA-condensing compounds required for efficient uptake of DNA. Here we report a polyethyleneimine (PEI) grafted ultra-small graphene oxide (PEI-g-USGO) for transfection. By removing the free PEI and ensuring a high PEI density on small sized graphene, we obtained very high transfection efficiencies combined with very low cytotoxicity. Plasmid DNA could be transfected into mammalian cell lines with up to 95% efficiency and 90% viability. Transfection in zebrafish embryos was 90%, with high viability, compared to efficiencies of 30% or lower for established transfection technologies. This result suggests a novel approach to the design of synthetic gene delivery vehicles for research and therapy.

Keywords: graphene, Gene delivery, DNA, zebrafish, Gene expression

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 March 2012
Revised: 20 August 2012
Accepted: 21 August 2012
Published: 15 September 2012
Issue date: October 2012

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Veni grant 2009 (Project Number: 700.59.407), the State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University: JKGQ201113, Cyttron II: www.cyttryon.org, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31200637), Jiangsu Basic Research Program (The Natural Science Fund No. SBK201240183), Science and Technology Planning Project of Changzhou (Social Development Fund No. CE20125050), F. Laroche was supported by the Carb Center, Denmark that receives funding the Danish National Research Foundation. We thank Henriette Lanz, Claude Backendorf, and Hans den Dulk for technical support.

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