1. ¹Department of Biophysics, Centre de Recherches de Biochimie Macromoléculaire, UPR-1086 CNRS, Montpellier, France
2. ²Active Motif, Carlsbad, CA, USA

Correspondence: Dr G Divita, Department of Biophysics, 'Centre de Recherches de Biochimie Macromoléculaire', UPR-1086 CNRS, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier, France

Received 7 May 2003; Accepted 6 December 2003; Published online 12 February 2004.

Abstract

The design of potent systems for the delivery of charged and noncharged molecules that target genes of interest remains a challenge. We describe a novel technology that combines a new generation of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), or HypNA-pPNAs, with a new noncovalent peptide-based delivery system, Pep-2, which promotes efficient delivery of PNAs into several cell lines. We have validated the potential of this technology by showing that Pep2-mediated delivery of an antisense HypNA-pPNA chimera directed specifically against cyclin B1 induces rapid and robust downregulation of its protein levels and efficiently blocks cell cycle progression of several cell lines, as well as proliferation of cells derived from a breast cancer. Pep-2-based delivery system was shown to be 100-fold more efficient in delivering HypNA-pPNAs than classical cationic lipid-based methods. Whereas Pep-2 is essential for improving the bioavailability of PNAs and HypNA-pPNAs, the latter contribute significantly to the efficiency and specificity of the biological response. We have found that Pep-2/HypNA-pPNA strategy promotes potent antisense effects, which are approximately 25-fold greater than with classical antisense oligonucleotide directed specifically against the same cyclin B1 target. Taken together, these data demonstrate that peptide-mediated delivery of HypNA-pPNAs constitutes a very promising technology for therapeutic applications.