Factors influencing the transfection efficiency of ultra low molecular weight chitosan/hyaluronic acid nanoparticles

The present work describes nanoparticles made of ultra low molecular weight chitosan (ULMWCh)/hyaluronic acid (HA) as novel potential carriers for gene delivery. Small and monodispersed nanoparticles with high in vitro transfection capabilities have been obtained by the complexation of these two polyelectrolytes. ULMWCh (<10 kDa) presents more advantageous characteristics over the higher molecular weight chitosan for clinical applications, namely increased solubility at physiological pH and improved DNA release. The ULMWCh:HA ratio and the HA molecular weights were varied with the aim of obtaining particles in the 100 nm range. Using chitosan (Ch) with a molecular weight of 5 kDa, HA with a molecular weight of 64 kDa, and a weight ratio of 4:1, nanoparticles with a Z-average size of 146 ± 1 nm and narrow size distribution (polydispersity index: 0.073 ± 0.030) were obtained. Nanoparticle images taken in dry conditions by SEM and AFM showed spherical particles. The optimal pH for transfection ranged from 6.4 to 6.8 for 0.25 μg of EGFP plasmid per well, with an incubation time of 4 h. Using these optimized parameters, DNA/ULMWCh:HA nanoparticles successfully transfected 25 ± 1% of the 293T cells with pEGFP, compared to 0.7% obtained for DNA/ULMWCh under the same conditions. This high transfection efficiency of our non-viral gene delivery system could be attributed to the synergic effect of ULMWCh and low charge density of the HA chain for easy release of DNA which makes the system suitable for targeted gene delivery.