Team:NJU China

From 2013.igem.org

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|'''Biomissile'''
|'''Biomissile'''
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Site-specific drug delivery has always been a challenge in drug treatment. It is acknowledged that a new system needs to be developed in order to overcome the poor targeting, low effectiveness and low safety of present ones.  
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Site-specific drug delivery has always been a challenge in gene therapy. It is urgently required to develop a new system to overcome the off-target effect, low efficiency and high toxicity of the currently available approaches. Recently, small interfering RNA (siRNA) is emerging as a promising therapeutic drug against a wide array of diseases. Current techniques for siRNA transfer use viruses or synthetic agents as delivery vehicles. However, these approaches are toxic and low-efficient, and more importantly, can not deliver siRNA to specific tissues and organs.
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{|align="justify"
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|Microvesicles (MV) are lipid bilayer vesicles which are naturally secreted by almost every types of cells, playing a role in transportation of mRNA, miRNA, and proteins between cells. We are trying to construct a system which employs the freely movable MV as a vehicle to achieve site-specific drug delivery.  
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|To better deliver the siRNA and other drugs, we are trying to construct a novel system which employs MVs to encapsulate and protect siRNAs for delivery to target cells. Microvesicles (MVs) are lipid bilayer vesicles which  
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By transfecting recombinant plasmids into the human embryonic kidney cell (293T cell) which can produce large amounts of microvesicles, we are hoping to add targeting protein onto the surface of the MV to endow it with ability of site-specific recognition in order to realize the site-specificity.
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|are naturally secreted by almost all cell types, playing crucial roles in intercellular transport of bioactive molecules, including siRNAs. Given the intrinsic ability to traverse biological barriers and to naturally transport functional siRNAs between cells, MVs potentially represent a novel and exciting drug carrier for therapeutic uses. Thus, MVs derived from cells engineered to express siRNAs may be capable of delivering siRNAs to local cellular environment.
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siRNAs are known to play a significant role in RNA interference by degrading targeted RNA. Similarly, by transfecting the 293T cells with siRNA plasmids, we enable them to express anti-viral siRNAs which can be encapsulated into the MVs.
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To achieve site-specific siRNA delivery, we will express targeting protein onto the surface of MVs and the modified MVs will, in theory, have the ability to target specific tissues and organs. By transfecting the producer cells with siRNA plasmids and collect MVs, we will fill the MVs with therapeutic siRNAs.
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Our modified MVs are just like the missiles, which can destroy viral RNA and target specially to viral infected cells. So we call it “Biomissile”.
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Our modified MVs are just like the “biomissile”, which can be delivered to specific cells and destroy target mRNAs. Our project will open up avenues for therapeutic applications of MVs as biomissile.
|[[Image:NJU China Team.JPG|520px|right]]
|[[Image:NJU China Team.JPG|520px|right]]
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Revision as of 06:08, 15 July 2013


NJU China TeamLogo.png
Biomissile

Site-specific drug delivery has always been a challenge in gene therapy. It is urgently required to develop a new system to overcome the off-target effect, low efficiency and high toxicity of the currently available approaches. Recently, small interfering RNA (siRNA) is emerging as a promising therapeutic drug against a wide array of diseases. Current techniques for siRNA transfer use viruses or synthetic agents as delivery vehicles. However, these approaches are toxic and low-efficient, and more importantly, can not deliver siRNA to specific tissues and organs.

To better deliver the siRNA and other drugs, we are trying to construct a novel system which employs MVs to encapsulate and protect siRNAs for delivery to target cells. Microvesicles (MVs) are lipid bilayer vesicles which
are naturally secreted by almost all cell types, playing crucial roles in intercellular transport of bioactive molecules, including siRNAs. Given the intrinsic ability to traverse biological barriers and to naturally transport functional siRNAs between cells, MVs potentially represent a novel and exciting drug carrier for therapeutic uses. Thus, MVs derived from cells engineered to express siRNAs may be capable of delivering siRNAs to local cellular environment.

To achieve site-specific siRNA delivery, we will express targeting protein onto the surface of MVs and the modified MVs will, in theory, have the ability to target specific tissues and organs. By transfecting the producer cells with siRNA plasmids and collect MVs, we will fill the MVs with therapeutic siRNAs.

Our modified MVs are just like the “biomissile”, which can be delivered to specific cells and destroy target mRNAs. Our project will open up avenues for therapeutic applications of MVs as biomissile.

NJU China Team.JPG
Team NJU_China