An oligopeptide ligand-mediated therapeutic gene nanocomplex for liver cancer-targeted therapy

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is over-expressed in a wide variety of epithelial-derived cancer cells. In this study, EGFR-targeted gene carriers were designed to complex the therapeutic acetylcholinesterase gene (AChE gene), which suppresses cell proliferation via inactivating mitogen-activated protein kinase and PI3K/Akt pathways in cells, for treatment of EGFR-positive liver cancers. Different amounts of target ligand YC21 (an oligopeptide composed of 21 amino acid units) were coupled with the PEI600-CD (PC) vectors composed of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and low-molecular-weight polyethylenimine (PEI, Mw 600) to form the EGFR-targeted gene vectors (termed as YPCs). The YPC vectors possessed the highly efficient gene delivery ability to the EGFR-positive liver cancer cells. YPCs could effectively promote AChE gene expression. The YPC/AChE complexes produced excellent gene transfection abilities in EGFR-positive liver cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.