Internalization of novel non-viral vector TAT-streptavidin into human cells

By confocal and immunoelectron microscopy the majority of internalized TAT-SA was shown to accumulate in perinuclear vesicles in both cancer and non-cancer cell lines. The uptake studies in living cells with various fluorescent endocytic markers and inhibiting agents suggested that TAT-SA is internalized into cells efficiently, using both clathrin-mediated endocytosis and lipid-raft-mediated macropinocytosis. When endosomal release of TAT-SA was enhanced through the incorporation of a biotinylated, pH-responsive polymer poly(propylacrylic acid) (PPAA), nuclear localization of TAT-SA and TAT-SA bound to biotin was markedly improved. Additionally, no significant cytotoxicity was detected in the TAT-SA constructs.This study demonstrates that TAT-SA-PPAA is a potential non-viral vector to be utilized in protein therapeutics to deliver biotinylated molecules both into cytoplasm and nucleus of human cells.Due to the limitations of current drug delivery systems, which have been hampered by their inefficiencies in traversing the cell membrane, there is a pressing need to develop methods for increasing intracellular delivery of protein-based cargoes. Over the past decade, numerous strategies to overcome the cell membrane barrier have been proposed, including electroporation, microinjection, viral vectors, liposome encapsulation and receptor-mediated endocytosis. These methods have, however, been plagued by low delivery efficiencies and, to some extent, increased cellular toxicity. Naturally occurring short cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) derived from viral, insect or mammalian proteins, have attracted considerable interest in the field of drug delivery for their ability to direct cellular uptake through active transport mechanisms. CPPs are oligopeptides, 11–30 amino acid residues in length, that are capable of conferring their apparent translocation activity to proteins and other macromolecular cargo to which they are linked [1]. In recent years, CPPs have been studied ext