Bioresponsive deciduous-charge amphiphiles for liposomal delivery of DNA and siRNA, Pharm Res 2013, 30:1362-1379.

Purpose-Biolabile cationic lipids were developed for efficient intracellular delivery of DNA and siRNA. Methods-The compounds have been designed starting from the membrane lipid DOPC in a way they may loose their cationic charge when exposed to an acidic and/or enzymatic stimulus, such as those met during the journey of a lipoplex in biological media. Results-They demonstrated remarkable efficiency to deliver DNA in various cell lines (BHK-21, Calu-3, NCI-H292, and A549), with no significant cytotoxicity. Furthermore, two of the compounds (carbonate-based DOPC derivatives) revealed able to deliver small interfering RNA in U87Luc and A549Luc cancer cells and to mediate a selective 70–80% knockdown of the stably transfected luciferase gene. Conclusions-The results show that the described bioresponsive cationic lipids have high DNA and siARN delivery activity which is encouraging in view of delivering a therapeutic nucleic acid to pulmonary tissues in vivo.