In Vivo application of RNAi to study pain

This overview is from 2010. I am posting a link because it undercores the need to have transfection reagents that have the ability to deliver small doses of siRNA in vivo.
"One of the biggest challenges in using RNAi in pain research is delivery of siRNA to the CNS in sufficient concentrations. This obstacle exists because siRNA by itself does not cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) and is degraded in the blood by endonucleases. Intravenous or oral administration is, therefore, inadequate to achieve desired protein knockdown. The use of transfection agents and intrathecal delivery has enhanced siRNA uptake by target tissues in recent studies." Zachary J Clark, Gurwattan S. Miranpuri, Daniel K Resnick. In Vivo application of RNAi to study pain. Annals of Neurosciences, Volume 17, Number 3, July 2010.

Please click through the link and you will learn of techniques currently used to delivery siRNA in vivo for pain research.

i-Fect, Survivin and Gliobastomas

I would like to add Survivin to the list of genes successfully silenced in-vitro and in-vivo using our i-Fect^TMsiRNA delivery kit.

The list includes: DOR, hTERT, The β3 subunit of the Na+,K+-ATPase, rSNSR1, NTS1. NAV1.8 and more

Joseph George, Naren L. Banik and Swapan K. Ray. Survivin knockdown and concurrent 4-HPR treatment controlled human glioblastoma in vitro and in vivo. Neuro-Oncology, doi:10.1093/neuonc/noq079.

...survivin siRNA cDNA was suspended in RNAse free sterile water (25 μg DNA/10 μl) and mixed (1:4 v/v) with i-Fect transfection reagent (Neuromics)...

Delivery of the Surivivin siRNA resulted in significant decreases in Glioblatoma Tumor Size.

Using MATRa for siRNA Transfection of Carcinoma Cell Lines

MATRa^TM -Magnet Assisted Transfection is an easy-to-handle, very fast and highly efficient technology to transfect cells in culture with siRNA. Multiple successes with the system includes Carcinoma Cell Lines.

Efficient transient transfection of siRNA in head and neck cancer cells. The cell line ANT-1 was transiently transfected with MATra-A (1 µl/1 µg DNA) in a 6 well format (5 x 105 cells/cavity) with siRNA against protein 1 (100 nM). After 24 hours total RNA was isolated and expression of protein 1-specific mRNA determined by RT-PCR (upper lane). SiRNA 13 are three different oligonucleotide sequences. Control for consistent loading and cDNA quality: expression of ubiquitary GAPDH mRNA (lower lane).
Protein 2 expression in head and neck cancer cells GHD-1. GHD-1 cells (5 x 105 cells/cavity of a 6 well plate) were transiently transfected with two different siRNAs against protein 2. Expression of protein 2 was detected with specific antibodies in an immunoblot 72 hours after transfection with MATra-A (1 µl / 1 µg DNA). As control ubiquitary β-actin was detected as well.
Treating the carcinoma cells with specific siRNA caused a clear inhibition of protein 1/protein 2 expression which indicates high transfection efficiencies.
(Data kindly provided by Rauch, Schaffrik, Ahlemann and Gires, LMU Munich and GSF, Munich, Germany).

"After having tested MATra in a variety of experimental set ups we can summarize the following advantages: High transfection efficiency   Easier to handle   High reproducibility Serum compatibility Low sensibility against cell confluence" Dr. Oliver Gires, LMU Munich, Germany