Synthesis and Application of a Novel Gene Delivery Vector for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Therapy

Human Wnt inhibitory factor-1 (hWIF-1), as an anti-oncogene, holds great promise for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapy. However, the clinical application of hWIF-1 in cancer therapy is limited by elimination and degradation of free hWIF-1 in vivo. Therefore, it is necessary to develop safe and effective gene delivery vectors for hWIF-1 delivery in vivo. In this paper, we synthesized a novel polyethylenimine (PEI) derivative PEI-SP5-2 (PES) based on branched PEI1800 and NSCLC-targeting peptide SP5-2 to deliver hWIF-1 for NSCLC therapy. PES had excellent gene delivery capacity, and the transfection efficiency reached 50.02% ± 4.75% in A549 cell lines when the weight ratio of PES/gene was 100. Besides, the PES/gene particles were monodispersed, and the hydrodynamic diameter and zeta potential were 47.55 nm and 24.9 mV, respectively. In addition, PES/hWIF-1 complexes could inhibit the tumor growth in vitro and in vivo when it was used for non-small-cell lung cancer therapy. We concluded that PES would be promising as a novel gene delivery vector, and PES/hWIF-1 complexes inhibited the tumor growth and showed potential for non-small-cell lung cancer therapy.