Science / Technology - Colloquium
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Olin Hall
223
A carrier molecule, vector, facilitates the delivery of therapeutic drugs, proteins, and/or nucleic acids into the target sites in effective and safe ways. The vector should be easy to be modified in order to improve the stability, and to facilitate the transportation of therapeutic materials. A variety of non-viral vectors have received much attention in the past decade ; 1) Polyplexes are formed by the electrostatic interaction between plasmid DNA and polycations. They have been designed to condense pDNA and to facilitate
their cellular uptake in order to achieve effective gene delivery based on their versatility and ease of modification. Among such modifications, PEGylation of therapeutic particles is widely used to mask particles from the phagocytic system. PEG-block-polycation copolymers having the N-(2-aminoethyl)-2-aminoethyl group in the side chain (PEG-b-P[Asp(DET)]) were developed, which show high transfection efficiencies and low cytotoxicity. 2) Vaults are naturally occurring 13-MDa ribonucleoprotein particles with a highly conserved structure composed of three different proteins: major vault protein (MVP), vault poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase
(VPARP) and telomerase-associated protein 1 (TEP1). Recombinant vaults can be engineered by expressing MVP using the baculovirus system. Vaults have several advantages as a delivery system including low immunogenicity and structural stability. The hollow vault particle is able to encapsulate sequestered materials within the central cavity using a targeting peptide derived from the VPARP protein. The vault shell is a dynamic structure which can disassemble into halves in response to low pH. Considering the low pH of the endosome compartment, dissociation of vaults may allow
the intracellular release of molecules.
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by: WPI Physics Department, Dr. Izabela Stroe
Suggested Audiences: College, Adult
E-mail:
izabela@wpi.edu
Phone: 508-831-5249
Last Modified: November 5, 2008 at 9:01 AM
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