Title

Novel Nanosomes for Gene Delivery to Plasmodium Falciparum-Infected Red Blood Cells.

Funding Source

National Institutes of Health, Louisiana Board of Regents

Grant Number

1G12RR026260-01,R01 AI 04089-08S1,AI68052, LEQSF(2007-12)-ENH-PKSFI-PRS-02,W81XWH-07-1-0136,2007-11

Department

Department of Biology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2013

Abstract

Malaria threatens millions of people annually and is a burden to human health and economic development. Unfortunately in terms of disease control, no effective vaccines are available and the efficacy of treatment is limited by drug resistance. Genetic manipulation in Plasmodium falciparum is hampered due to the absence of robust methods for genetic analyses. Electroporation-based transfection methods have allowed the study of gene function in P. falciparum, with low efficiency. A lipid nanoparticle was developed that allowed nuclear targeting of pDNA with increased efficiency in reporter assay, compared to traditional electroporation method. This method has for the first time, facilitated transfection using both circular and linear DNA in P. falciparum thereby serving as an alternative to electroporation with an increase in transfection efficiency. Availability of a robust method for functional genomic studies in these organisms may be a catalyst for discovery of novel targets for developing drugs and vaccines.

Comments

DOI: 10.1038/srep01534

PubMed ID: 23525038

Funding text

This work was funded in part by the NIH Grants R01 AI 04089-08S1, NIH R56 grant AI68052, NIH Grants 1G12RR026260-01, Louisiana Board of Regents RC/EEP (2007-11), LEQSF(2007-12)-ENH-PKSFI-PRS-02 and Military Infectious Disease Research Program Grant # W81XWH-07-1-0136. Authors also thank David Jacobs (Jacobus Pharmaceutical Co. Inc.) for the kind gift of WR99210.

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