Jeroen Van den Bossche

Lipid-Peptide Vesicle Nanoscale Hybrids for Triggered Drug Release by Mild Hyperthermia in vitro and in vivo

The present study describes leucine zipper peptide-lipid hybrid nanoscale vesicles engineered by self-assembled anchoring of the amphiphilic peptide within the lipid bilayer. These hybrid vesicles aim to combine the advantages of traditional temperature-sensitive liposomes (TSL) with the dissociative, unfolding properties of a temperature-sensitive peptide to optimize drug release under mild hyperthermia, while improving in vivo drug retention. The secondary structure of the peptide and its thermal responsiveness after anchoring onto liposomes were studied with circular dichroism. In addition, the lipid-peptide vesicles (Lp-peptide) showed a reduction in bilayer fluidity at the inner core, as observed with DPH anisotropy studies, while the opposite effect was observed with an ANS probe, indicating peptide interactions with both the headgroup region and the hydrophobic core. A model drug molecule, doxorubicin, was successfully encapsulated in the Lp-peptide vesicles at higher than 90% efficiency following the remote loading, pH-gradient methodology. The release of doxorubicin from Lp-peptide hybrids in vitro indicated superior serum stability at physiological temperatures compared to lysolipid-containing temperature-sensitive liposomes (LTSL) without affecting the overall thermo-responsive nature of the vesicles at 42 °C. A similar stabilizing effect was observed in vivo after intravenous administration of the Lp-peptide vesicles by measuring (14)C-doxorubicin blood kinetics that also led to increased tumor accumulation after 24 h. We conclude that Lp-peptide hybrid vesicles present a promising new class of TSL that can offer previously unexplored opportunities for the development of clinically relevant mild hyperthermia-triggered therapeutic modalities.

Purified Graphene Oxide Dispersions Lack In Vitro Cytotoxicity and In Vivo Pathogenicity

Prompted by the excitement from the description of single layer graphene, increased attention for potential applications in the biomedical field has been recently placed on graphene oxide (GO). Determination of the opportunities and limitations that GO offers in biomedicine are particularly prone to inaccuracies due to wide variability in the preparation methodologies of GO material in different laboratories, that results in significant variation in the purity of the material and the yield of the oxidation reactions, primarily the Hummers method used. Herein, the fabrication of highly pure, colloidally stable, and evenly dispersed GO in physiologically-relevant aqueous buffers in comparison to conventional GO is investigated. The purified GO material is thoroughly characterized by a battery of techniques, and is shown to consist of single layer GO sheets of lateral dimensions below 500 nm. The cytotoxic impact of the GO in vitro and its inflammation profile in vivo is investigated. The purified GO prepared and characterized here does not induce significant cytotoxic responses in vitro, or inflammation and granuloma formation in vivo following intraperitoneal injection. This is one of the initial steps towards determination of the safety risks associated with GO material that may be interacting with living tissue.

Hybrid Polymer-Grafted Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for In vitro Gene Delivery

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) consist of carbon atoms arranged in sheets of graphene rolled up into cylindrical shapes. This class of nanomaterials has attracted attention because of their extraordinary properties, such as high electrical and thermal conductivity. In addition, development in CNT functionalization chemistry has led to an enhanced dispersibility in aqueous physiological media which indeed broadens the spectrum for their potential biological applications including gene delivery. The aim of this study is to determine the capability of different cationic polymer-grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) (polymer-g-MWNTs) to efficiently complex and transfer plasmid DNA (pCMV-βGal) in vitro without promoting cytotoxicity. Carboxylated MWNT is chemically conjugated to the cationic polymers polyethylenimine (PEI), polyallylamine (PAA), or a mixture of the two polymers. In order to explore the potential of these polymer-g-MWNTs as gene delivery systems, we first study their capacity to complex plasmid DNA (pDNA) using agarose gel electrophoresis. Gel migration studies confirm pDNA binding to polymer-g-MWNT with different affinities, highest for PEI-g-MWNT and PEI/PAA-g-CNT constructs. β-galactosidase expression is assessed in human lung epithelial (A549) cells, and the cytotoxicity is determined by modified LDH assay after 24 h incubation period. Additionally, PEI-g-MWNT and/or PEI/PAA-g-MWNT reveal an improvement in gene expression when compared to the naked pDNA or to the equivalent amounts of PEI polymer alone. Mechanistically, pDNA was delivered by the polymer-g-MWNT constructs via a different pathway compared to those used by polyplexes. In conclusion, polymer-g-MWNTs may be considered in the future as a versatile tool for efficient gene transfer in cancer cells in vitro, provided their toxicological profile is established.

Liposome–Gold Nanorod Hybrids for High-Resolution Visualization Deep in Tissues

The design of liposome-nanoparticle hybrids offers a rich toolbox for the fabrication of multifunctional modalities. A self-assembled liposome-gold nanorod hybrid vesicular system that consists of lipid-bilayer-associated gold nanorods designed to allow deep tissue detection, therapy, and monitoring in living animals using multispectral optoacoustic tomography has been fabricated and characterized in vitro and in vivo.

Intracellular trafficking and gene expression of pH-sensitive, artificially enveloped adenoviruses in vitro and in vivo

Recombinant adenovirus (Ad) has shown great promise in gene therapy. Artificial envelopment of adenovirus within lipid bilayers has previously been shown to decrease the immunogenicity and hepatic affinity of naked Ad in vivo. Unfortunately, this also resulted in a significant reduction of gene expression, which we attributed to poor endosomal release of the Ad from its artificial lipid envelope. In this work, we explored the artificial envelopment of Ad within pH-sensitive DOPE:CHEMS bilayers and characterized this vector by TEM, AFM, dot blot, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential measurements. The artificially enveloped viral vectors exhibited good stability at physiological pH but immediately collapsed and released naked Ad virions at pH 5.5. Intracellular trafficking using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) revealed that Cy3-labelled Ad enveloped in DOPE:CHEMS bilayers exhibited the characteristic Ad distribution within the cytoplasm that led to virion accumulation around the nuclear membrane, indicating endosomal release of Ad. We obtained equivalent levels of gene expression as those of naked Ad in a series of CAR-positive (CAR+) and CAR-negative (CAR-) cell lines. This suggested that the mechanism of infection for the artificially enveloped Ad remained dependent on the presence of CAR receptors. Finally, the pH-sensitive enveloped Ad were injected intratumorally in human cervical carcinoma xenograft-bearing nude mice, also illustrating their capacity for efficient in vivo marker gene expression. This study is a step forward toward the engineering of functional, artificially enveloped adenovirus vectors for gene transfer applications.

Autophagy and formation of tubulovesicular autophagosomes provide a barrier against nonviral gene delivery

Cationic liposome (lipoplex) and polymer (polyplex)-based vectors have been developed for nonviral gene delivery. These vectors bind DNA and enter cells via endosomes, but intracellular transfer of DNA to the nucleus is inefficient. Here we show that lipoplex and polyplex vectors enter cells in endosomes, activate autophagy and generate tubulovesicular autophagosomes. Activation of autophagy was dependent on ATG5, resulting in lipidation of LC3, but did not require the PtdIns 3-kinase activity of PIK3C3/VPS34. The autophagosomes generated by lipoplex fused with each other, and with endosomes, resulting in the delivery of vectors to large tubulovesicular autophagosomes, which accumulated next to the nucleus. The tubulovesicular autophagosomes contained autophagy receptor protein SQSTM1/p62 and ubiquitin, suggesting capture of autophagy cargoes, but fusion with lysosomes was slow. Gene delivery and expression from both lipoplex and polyplex increased 8-fold in atg5−/− cells unable to generate tubulovesicular autophagosomes. Activation of autophagy and capture within tubulovesicular autophagosomes therefore provides a new cellular barrier against efficient gene transfer and should be considered when designing efficient nonviral gene delivery vectors.

Efficient receptor-independent intracellular translocation of aptamers mediated by conjugation to carbon nanotubes

We have covalently grafted aptamers onto carboxylated carbon nanotubes to design a novel vector system that can easily translocate into the cytosol of different cell types independent of receptor-mediated uptake. We propose the use of carbon nanotubes for the efficient intracellular delivery of biologically active aptamers for potential therapeutic applications.

The effect of artificial lipid envelopment of Adenovirus 5 (Ad5) on liver de-targeting and hepatotoxicity

Human Adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) has been extensively explored in clinical gene therapy, but its immunogenicity dramatically affects the kinetics and toxicity profile of the vector. We previously designed a variety of artificial lipid bilayer envelopes around the viral capsid to develop safer hybrid vectors. Here, we studied the interaction of enveloped Ad in cationic (DOTAP:Chol) or anionic (DOPE:CHEMS) lipid bilayers with different blood components. When Ad was enveloped by cationic lipids, significantly high levels of viral uptake in HepG2 cultured cells were achieved, independent of blood coagulation factors present. In vitro experiments also showed that artificial envelopment of Ad completely altered the affinity towards both human and murine red blood cells. After intravenous administration in BALB/c mice, real-time PCR and transgene expression studies indicated that cationic lipid envelopes significantly reduced hepatocyte transduction significantly increasing virus lung accumulation compared to DOPE:CHEMS enveloped or naked Ad. ALT/AST serum levels and liver histology showed that envelopment also improved hepatotoxicity profiles compared to naked Ad. This study suggests that artificial envelopes for Ad significantly alter the interactions with blood components and can divert viral particles from their natural liver tropism resulting in reduced hepatotoxicity.

Design and Engineering of Multifunctional Quantum Dot-Based Nanoparticles for Simultaneous Therapeutic-Diagnostic Applications

Quantum dots (QD) are semiconducting nanocrystals that have recently received a lot of interest because of their efficacy as fluorescent probes. They offer a significant increase in photostability and fluorescence lifetime compared to more traditional organic dye-based probes; however, some concern from their potential in vivo use due to their chemical composition and their nanoscale dimensions exists. Within this chapter, we discuss current knowledge about the fluorescence properties and pharmacological profile of quantum dots, showing how these characteristics can be altered after incorporation within previously established drug delivery systems for the formation of novel hybrid systems. The incorporation of therapeutic agents into such hybrid systems can further result in the construction of theranostic devices, namely, QD-based theranostics. Alternatively, conjugation of quantum dots to therapeutic moieties can be used as a scaffold for theranostic device design. This chapter will discuss the current progress in QD-based theranostics.