The role of disulfide-bridge on the activities of H-shape gemini-like cationic lipid based siRNA delivery

The GLCL/siRNA nanoplexes were prepared with electrostatic interaction. After cell internalization, the ssGLCLs were split into two single chain lipid units with the cleavage of disulfide-bridge by abundant reductive glutathione (GSH) in cells, then the resulted monomeric lipid unit exhibited higher membrane fusion and facilitated release of siRNA from lysosomes into cytoplasm, thus the enhanced gene silencing effects on targeted mRNA were obtained.208