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Research Article

Gold nanorod–siRNA induces efficient in vivo gene silencing in the rat hippocampus

    Adela C Bonoiu

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Earl J Bergey

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Hong Ding

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Rui Hu

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Rajiv Kumar

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Ken-Tye Yong

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore

    ,
    Paras N Prasad

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Supriya Mahajan

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Kelly E Picchione

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    ,
    Arin Bhattacharjee

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    &
    Tracey A Ignatowski

    † Author for correspondence

    State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.

    Published Online:https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm.11.20

    Aim: Gold nanorods (GNRs), cellular imaging nanoprobes, have been used for drug delivery therapy to immunologically privileged regions in the brain. We demonstrate that nanoplexes formed by electrostatic binding between negatively charged RNA and positively charged GNRs, silence the expression of the target housekeeping gene, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) within the CA1 hippocampal region of the rat brain, without showing cytotoxicity. Materials & Methods: Fluorescence imaging with siRNACy3GAPDH and dark-field imaging using plasmonic enhanced scattering from GNRs were used to monitor the distribution of the nanoplexes within different neuronal cell types present in the targeted hippocampal region. Results & Conclusion: Our results show robust nanoplex uptake and slow release of the fluorescent gene silencer with significant impact on the suppression of GAPDH gene expression (70% gene silencing, >10 days postinjection). The observed gene knockdown using nanoplexes in targeted regions of the brain opens a new era of drug treatment for neurological disorders.

    Papers of special note have been highlighted as: ▪ of interest ▪▪ of considerable interest

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