Noninvasive, Targeted, Non-Viral Ultrasound-Mediated GDNF-Plasmid Delivery for Treatment of Parkinson's Disease
Journal
Scientific Reports
Journal Volume
6
Pages
e19579
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
CH Fan
CY Ting
CY Lin
HL Chan
YC Chang
YY Chen
HL Liu
CK Yeh
CH Fan
CY Ting
CY Lin
HL Chan
YC Chang
YY Chen
HL Liu
CK Yeh
Abstract
Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) supports the growth and survival of dopaminergic neurons. CNS gene delivery currently relies on invasive intracerebral injection to transit the blood-brain barrier. Non-viral gene delivery via systematic transvascular route is an attractive alternative because it is non-invasive, but a high-yield and targeted gene-expressed method is still lacking. In this study, we propose a novel non-viral gene delivery approach to achieve targeted gene transfection. Cationic microbubbles as gene carriers were developed to allow the stable formation of a bubble-GDNF gene complex, and transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) exposure concurrently interacting with the bubble-gene complex allowed transient gene permeation and induced local GDNF expression. We demonstrate that the focused ultrasound-triggered GDNFp-loaded cationic microbubbles platform can achieve non-viral targeted gene delivery via a noninvasive administration route, outperform intracerebral injection in terms of targeted GDNF delivery of high-titer GDNF genes, and has a neuroprotection effect in Parkinson's disease (PD) animal models to successfully block PD syndrome progression and to restore behavioral function. This study explores the potential of using FUS and bubble-gene complexes to achieve noninvasive and targeted gene delivery for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.
SDGs
Type
journal article