Inhibition of Monocyte Adhesion to Brain-Derived Endothelial Cells by Dual Functional RNA Chimeras

• Main Authors: Jing Hu, Feng Xiao, Xin Hao, Shuhua Bai, Jiukuan Hao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2014-01-01
• Series: Molecular Therapy: Nucleic Acids
• Subjects: blood–brain barrier; endothelial cell; inflammation; intercellular adhesion molecule-1; ischemia; RNA nanotechnology; siRNA; transferrin receptor; oxygen-glucose deprivation
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2162253116303481

Because adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells is the first step of vascular-neuronal inflammation, inhibition of adhesion and recruitment of leukocytes to vascular endothelial cells will have a beneficial effect on neuroinflammatory diseases. In this study, we used the pRNA of bacteriophage phi29 DNA packaging motor to construct a novel RNA nanoparticle for specific targeting to transferrin receptor (TfR) on the murine brain-derived endothelial cells (bEND5) to deliver ICAM-1 siRNA. This RNA nanoparticle (FRS-NPs) contained a FB4 aptamer targeting to TfR and a siRNA moiety for silencing the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Our data indicated that this RNA nanoparticle was delivered into murine brain-derived endothelial cells. Furthermore, the siRNA was released from the FRS-NPs in the cells and knocked down ICAM-1 expression in the TNF-α–stimulated cells and in the cells under oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) condition. The functional end points of the study indicated that FRS-NPs significantly inhibited monocyte adhesion to the bEND5 cells induced by TNF-α and OGD/R. In conclusion, our approach using RNA nanotechnology for siRNA delivery could be potentially applied for inhibition of inflammation in ischemic stroke and other neuroinflammatory diseases, or diseases affecting endothelium of vasculature.