Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Oct 29:2013:630654.
doi: 10.1155/2013/630654. eCollection 2013.

Dendrimers as carriers for siRNA delivery and gene silencing: a review

Jiangyu Wu  1 , Weizhe Huang, Ziying He
Affiliations
Review

Dendrimers as carriers for siRNA delivery and gene silencing: a review

Jiangyu Wu et al. ScientificWorldJournal. .

Abstract

RNA interference (RNAi) was first literaturally reported in 1998 and has become rapidly a promising tool for therapeutic applications in gene therapy. In a typical RNAi process, small interfering RNAs (siRNA) are used to specifically downregulate the expression of the targeted gene, known as the term "gene silencing." One key point for successful gene silencing is to employ a safe and efficient siRNA delivery system. In this context, dendrimers are emerging as potential nonviral vectors to deliver siRNA for RNAi purpose. Dendrimers have attracted intense interest since their emanating research in the 1980s and are extensively studied as efficient DNA delivery vectors in gene transfer applications, due to their unique features based on the well-defined and multivalent structures. Knowing that DNA and RNA possess a similar structure in terms of nucleic acid framework and the electronegative nature, one can also use the excellent DNA delivery properties of dendrimers to develop effective siRNA delivery systems. In this review, the development of dendrimer-based siRNA delivery vectors is summarized, focusing on the vector features (siRNA delivery efficiency, cytotoxicity, etc.) of different types of dendrimers and the related investigations on structure-activity relationship to promote safe and efficient siRNA delivery system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The mechanism of RNA interference. For details see the context and related references.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of the literature published concerning dendrimer-based siRNA delivery (data from ISI web of knowledge, from 2005 to 2012). (a) Distribution by years (b) Distribution by dendrimer types.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Molecular structure of generation 2 PAMAM dendrimer with (a) ethylenediamine (EDA) core, (b) ammonium (NH3) core, and (c) triethanolamine (TEA) core.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Poly(propylene imine) (PPI) G3 dendrimer.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Carbosilane (CBS) dendrimers.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Poly(L-lysine) (PLL) G3 dendrimers.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Triazine G2 dendrimers with terminal amine and hydroxyl groups.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Polyglycerol derived dendrimers. (a) PG-NH2; (b) PG-PEHA.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Tetra-oleoyl lysine (TOL) G3 dendrimer.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Other types of dendrimers. (a) Dendrimer-lipid component for iNOPs; (b) cyclodextrin tetrapod; (c) PEI-PAMAM; (d) PEI-Glu.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Fire A, Xu S, Montgomery MK, Kostas SA, Driver SE, Mello CC. Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in caenorhabditis elegans. Nature. 1998;391(6669):806–811. - PubMed
    1. Hammond SM, Boettcher S, Caudy AA, Kobayashi R, Hannon GJ. Argonaute2, a link between genetic and biochemical analyses of RNAi. Science. 2001;293(5532):1146–1150. - PubMed
    1. Aagaard L, Rossi JJ. RNAi therapeutics: principles, prospects and challenges. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. 2007;59(2-3):75–86. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang J, Lu Z, Wientjes MG, Au JL-S. Delivery of siRNA therapeutics: barriers and carriers. AAPS Journal. 2010;12(4):492–503. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu X, Rocchi P, Peng L. Dendrimers as non-viral vectors for siRNA delivery. New Journal of Chemistry. 2012;36(2):256–263.

Publication types