An interdisciplinary team of Drexel researchers are pioneering the development of a novel gene delivery vehicle using non-toxic zinc sulfide (ZnS) quantum dots for DNA vaccines. The project, led by Wei-Heng Shih, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering and supported by the Longsview Fellowship Program, aims to create a safer and more efficient alternative to current gene delivery methods.
Current cell and gene therapy relies on viral vectors or lipid nanoparticles, which have limitations including potential neurotoxicity, inflammatory responses, and storage challenges. Drexel’s patented method, which uses aqueous quantum dots (AQDs), has shown promise as an efficient and biocompatible non-viral vector, capable of delivering genes into cells and nuclei with 76% effectiveness.
The researchers are now focusing on developing ZnS AQDs, which contain only benign elements, as an improvement over cadmium selenide (CdSe) AQDs. Preliminary results show that surface modification with additional zinc coating can preserve the photoluminescence of ZnS AQDs after complexing with polyethylenimine, a crucial step in the gene delivery process.
Future work will include cytotoxicity studies of PEI-ZnS complexes with mice immune cells and in vivo studies of AQD-PEI-plasmid DNA delivery in mice. This research could lead to significant advancements in DNA vaccine technology and gene therapy applications.
