Chitosan–hyaluronic acid nanoparticles for gene silencing: The role of hyaluronic acid on the nanoparticles’ formation and activity

Hyaluronic acid (HA) has been described as a biocompatibility enhancer for gene delivery systems; however, the mechanistic implications of its inclusion on the formation and activity of such systems and subsequent gene release are poorly understood. To better understand these issues, we describe herein the preparation and characterization of chitosan and chitosan–hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (CS and CS:HA NPs) for gene silencing. Different formulations were prepared by ionotropic gelation and evaluated for their physicochemical properties and biological activities in A549-Luc cells. Inclusion of HA to CS NPs resulted in a comparable silencing activity with Lipofectamine™ RNAiMAX (≈85% of luciferase knockdown) and significantly improved cell viability compared with CS NPs. As depicted by isothermal titration calorimetry, HA competed with siRNA for CS binding, lowering CS–siRNA binding strength by 25%. This suggests that besides improving cell biocompatibility of CS NPs, HA might also promote their gene release by loosening the CS–siRNA binding.

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► The role of HA on the formation/activity of CS NPs for gene delivery is studied.
► HA-containing NPs exhibited superior silencing activity and biocompatibility.
► HA prompts the higher activity by loosening the siRNA–CS binding in ca. a 25%.