Using i-Fect for treatment of Glioblastomas

Dr. Swapan K. Ray, Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine and his team should positive results in reducing growth of Glioblastomas by knocking down hTERT expression using Neuromics' i-Fect ™ siRNA Transfection Kit. Here's the related pub:

Joseph George, Naren L. Banik, Swapan K. Ray. Combination of hTERT Knockdown and IFN-γ Treatment Inhibited Angiogenesis and Tumor Progression in Glioblastoma. Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(23):7186–95

...with i-Fect transfection reagent (Neuromics) to obtain 5 μg DNA/10 μL of injection volume...

Results: In vitro and in vivo angiogenesis assays showed inhibition of capillary-like network formation of microvascular endothelial cells and neovascularization under dorsal skin of nude mice, respectively. We observed inhibition of intracerebral tumorigenesis and s.c. solid tumor formation in nude mice after treatment with combination of hTERT siRNA and IFN-γ. Western blotting of solid tumor samples showed significant downregulation of the molecules that regulate cell invasion, angiogenesis, and tumor progression.

Conclusions: Our study showed that the combination of hTERT siRNA and IFN-γ effectively inhibited angiogenesis and tumor progression through the downregulation of molecules involved in these processes. Therefore, the combination of hTERT siRNA and IFN-γ is a promising therapeutic strategy for controlling the growth of human glioblastoma.

Delivering 27mer DsiRNAs to Mice DRGs

I have been a proponent of using 27mer DsiRNAs (Dicer Substrate Small Interfering RNAs) with our i-Fect kits to deliver siRNA to the CNS for gene expression analysis. The potency of this platform was highlighted in my profile of Dr. Mark Behlke.

It was further confirmed by in Studies conducted by Dr. Philippe Serrat and his team at University of Sherbrooke.

Louis Doré-Savard, Geneviève Roussy, Marc-André Dansereau, Michael A Collingwood, Kim A Lennox, Scott D Rose, Nicolas Beaudet, Mark A Behlke and Philippe Sarret. Central Delivery of Dicer-substrate siRNA: A Direct Application for Pain Research. Molecular Therapy (2008); Jul;16(7):1331-9. Epub 2008 Jun 3 doi:10.1038/mt.2008.98.

Using ultra low dose of DsiRNAs complexed with Neuromics’ i-Fect , they were able to successfully reduce NTS2 gene expression by up to 86% in rat lumbar Dorsal Root Ganglia after only two intrathecal injections. This was confirmed by Western Blot and qPCR analysis.

We now have further confirmation of the capabilities of this delivery platform in a just released publication by Dr. Jeffrey Mogil and team:

Michael L. LaCroix-Fralish, Gary Mo, Shad B. Smith, Susana G. Sotocinal, Jennifer Ritchie, Jean-Sebastien Austin, Kara Melmed, Ara Schorscher-Petcu, Audrey C. Laferriere, Tae Hoon Lee, Dmitry Romanovsky, Guochun Liao, Mark A. Behlke, David J. Clark, Gary Peltz, Philippe Séguéla, Maxim Dobretsov and Jeffrey S. Mogil. The β3 subunit of the Na+,K+-ATPase mediates variable nociceptive sensitivity in the formalin test. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2009.04.028.

IT Delivery of siRNA in vivo supplement

Knockdown of rSNSR1 in vivo

The parade of success with use our i-FectTM in vivo grows. Here's the most recent study:

Christian Ndong, Amynah Pradhan, Carole Puma, Jean-Pierre Morello, Cyrla Hoffert, Thierry Groblewski , Dajan O’Donnell, Jennifer M.A. Laird. Role of rat sensory neuron-specific receptor (rSNSR1) in inflammatory pain: Contribution of TRPV1 to SNSR signaling in the pain pathway. PAIN 143 (2009) 130–137.
...For experiments in which siRNA was delivered by bolus injections, 10 ul of siRNA or vehicle was injected directly into the intrathecal catheter once daily for 4 days. In this case, siRNAs were prepared immediately prior to administration by mixing the RNA solution (200 uM in annealing buffer) with the transfection reagent i-FectTM (Neuromics) at a ratio of 1:4 (w:v) for a final siRNA/ lipid complex concentration of 2 ug/10 ul...

Related Data:



Images: in vivo characterization of knockdown produced by rSNSR1 siRNA. (A) A dose-dependent decrease in rSNSR1 mRNA levels measured in lumbar L3/L4/L5 DRGs was
observed when rSNSR1 siRNA (n = 7–14/group) or MM siRNA (n = 6/group) was delivered by four daily bolus injections. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 as determined by oneway analysis of variance followed by sequential testing. (B) rSNSR1 immunoreactivity in dorsal horn of the spinal cord was visibly reduced in rSNSR1 siRNA-treated animals (5 lg/day, left panel). Immunoreactivity with neuron-specific isolectin B4 (IB4; right panel) did not change between treatment groups, showing the integrity of each dorsal horn analyzed (n = 6/group). (C) A semi-quantitative score of rSNSR1 immunoreactivity showed that siRNA treatment greatly decreased rSNSR1 protein levels compared to MM and control groups. A blinded observer scored 9–12 individual sections taken from a 1 cm segment of the spinal cord.

Did Your RNAi Experiment Work?

This is a good methods publication on RNAi transfection: Reliably Validating RNA Interference with qRT-PCR.

Bill Wang, Song Tian, Qiong Zhou, and Xiao Zeng. SA Biosciences.