光に応答する遺伝子デリバリーシステム ～エンドソーム脱出を中心とした細胞内トラフィッキング光制御～

抄録

Since light as a stimulus can be controlled both temporally and spatially, photo-irradiation improves both the endosomal escape of exogenous DNA and DNA release from the complexes with carriers. When a photo-responsive cationic lipid formed a cell-sized giant vesicle, we observed the photo-isomerization effect of azobenzene on its shape change. Photoswitching the membrane line tension induced reversible transitions between a closed sphere and an opened disk with a bilayer pore. In a transfection experiment using a photoresponsive cationic lipid, UV irradiation improved the transfection efficiency. After the lipoplexes passed through the plasma membrane by endocytosis, trans to cis isomerization of azobenzene moiety destabilized the vesicle membrane, thus accelerating not only the membrane fusion of the photoresponsive lipid vesicles but also the endosomal escape of the exogenous DNA.