Nanosecond laser pulse induced stress waves enhanced magnetofection of human carcinoma cells in vitro

We have developed a novel platform for efficient gene delivery into cells using magnetic force for pre-concentration of gene-magnetic nanoparticle complex on the surface of cells with subsequent nanosecond laser pulse for generation of stress waves in transfection chamber which is able to permeabilize cell membrane for the facilitated delivery of gene into the cell interior. Combination of these two physical factors increased the efficiency of three different human carcinoma cells transfection with plasmid coding green fluorescence protein from 43% to 67%, from 35% to 54%, and from 23% to 39%, for HeLa (cervical carcinoma), MCF-7 (breast carcinoma), and UCI-107 (ovarian carcinoma) cells, respectively, as compared with using only magnetofection. Proposed fast, simple, and efficient method may have far reaching applications for cancer gene therapy. (C) 2012 by Astro, Ltd.