DNA uptake, intracellular trafficking and gene transfection after ultrasound exposure

Ultrasound has been studied as a promising tool for intracellular gene delivery. In this work, we studied gene transfection of a human prostate cancer cell line exposed to megahertz pulsed ultrasound in the presence of contrast agent and assessed the efficiency of fluorescently labelled DNA delivery into cell nuclei, which is necessary for gene transfection. At the sonication conditions studied, ~ 30% of cells showed DNA uptake 30 min after sonication, but that fraction decreased over time to ~ 10% of cells after 24 h. Most cells containing DNA had DNA in their nuclei, but the amount varied significantly. Transfection efficiency peaked at ~ 10% at 8 h post sonication. Among those cells containing DNA, ~ 30% of DNA was localized in the cell nuclei, ~ 30% was in autophagosomes/autophagolysosomes and the remainder was “free” in the cytoplasm 30 min after sonication. At later times up to 24 h, ~ 30% of DNA continued to be found in the nuclei and most or all of the rest of the DNA was in autophagosomes/autophagolysosomes. These results demonstrate that ultrasound can deliver DNA into cell nuclei shortly after sonication and that the rest of the DNA can be cleared by autophagosomes/autophagolysosomes.

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