Development of a novel cationic liposome: Evaluation of liposome mediated transfection and anti-proliferative effects of miR-101 in acute myeloid leukemia

In this study, a new formulation of miRNA-loaded cationic liposomes (CLs) was prepared for bone marrow cells. CLs and miRNA-loaded cationic liposomes (CL/miR-101) were prepared and their characteristics were assessed using Dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. MTT assay was used for bone marrow cell lines (KG-1 and HBMF-SPH cell lines) to evaluate cytotoxicity of CLs and CL/miR-101. The results have shown that the size and charge of the prepared CLs with new formulation were 84.5 nm and 20.1 mV and for CL/miR-101 were 126.6 nm and 4.31 mV. MTT assay results have demonstrated that different concentrations of CLs had no obvious cytotoxicity in both KG-1 and HBMF-SPH cells. The cytotoxicity of CL/miR-101 was approximately 12% more than the bare miRNA-101 in KG-1 cells and comparatively less significant amount of cytotoxicity was seen in HBMF-SPH cells. In this study, a new formulation of cationic liposome was successfully designed to deliver miRNA into bone marrow cells effectively. The suitable size and charge of CLs made them capable to form efficient CL/miR-101 complex, which was stable and penetrated significantly into the cells. CL/miR-101 complex proved to be cytotoxic for cancer cells and hence can be considered as a novel gene therapy system.