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Non-viral neurotrophic factor (NF) gene therapy is a new paradigm in glaucoma treatment with the potential for neuroprotection and regeneration of damaged retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). To improve nanoparticle gene delivery systems and generate a suitable RGC cell model to facilitate in vitro investigations, we have developed mouse multipotent retinal stem cell (MRSC)-derived RGCs (XFC-3 cells) that express key RGC characteristics as demonstrated through biomarker expression profiling and stimuli-inducible neurite extension evaluation. Dicationic gemini surfactant-, single-walled carbon nanotube-, and K2-lipopolyamine polymer-based gene delivery systems were formulated and evaluated in three-dimensional (3D) A7/XFC-3 and XFC-3/XFC-3 co-cultures to validate the model for transfection efficiency (TE) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) bioactivity measurements, which helped identify the K2-NPs as having high TE (63.1% ± 1.4%) and high cell viability (94.4% ± 0.4%). Overall, XFC-3 cells are suitable for the construction of 3D in vivo-like tissue models and enable the screening of RGC-aimed gene delivery systems for neuroprotective treatment of glaucoma.
School of Pharmacy and Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Full article11.9 Gene therapy (Part of: 11 Medical treatment)
2.17 Stem cells (Part of: 2 Anatomical structures in glaucoma)
11.8 Neuroprotection (Part of: 11 Medical treatment)