IMPORTANCE OF HYDROPHOBIC REGION IN AMPHIPHILIC STRUCTURES OF ALPHA-HELICAL PEPTIDES FOR THEIR GENE TRANSFER-ABILITY INTO CELLS

Citation
N. Ohmori et al., IMPORTANCE OF HYDROPHOBIC REGION IN AMPHIPHILIC STRUCTURES OF ALPHA-HELICAL PEPTIDES FOR THEIR GENE TRANSFER-ABILITY INTO CELLS, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 245(1), 1998, pp. 259-265
Citations number
28
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Biology,Biophysics
ISSN journal
0006-291X
Volume
245
Issue
1
Year of publication
1998
Pages
259 - 265
Database
ISI
SICI code
0006-291X(1998)245:1<259:IOHRIA>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
It has been showned that cationic alpha-helical peptides can be useful as nucleic acid-carrier molecules for gene transfer into cells. In or der to investigate the significancemake sure of importance of the hydr ophobic region in amphiphilic peptides in relation to their transfecti on ability, we have employed five kinds of peptides with a systematica lly varied hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance in the amphiphilic structur es, and have evaluated the relationship between the structure and the gene transfer ability of the peptides into COS-7 cells. The peptides w ith a large hydrophobic region took alpha-helical structures, formed l arge aggregates and showed high transfection efficiency. Their high ef ficiency can be explained on the basis of their ability to form stable aggregates which can be internalized by endocytosis and remain resist ant to digestion in lysosomal vesicles. Furthermore, it was suggested that the hydrophobic region of peptides plays an important role in the disruption of the endosomal membrane, which ca prevent the degradatio n of DNA in lysosomal vesicles, When peptides do not have so strong me mbrane-disruptive activity, but form aggregates which can be incorpora ted by endocytosis, the transfection efficiency can be recovered by th e addition of an endosome-disruptive peptide, (C) 1998 Academic Press.