The spherulites™: a promising carrier for oligonucleotide delivery

Concentric multilamellar microvesicles, named spherulites™, were evaluated as an oligonucleotide carrier. Up to 80% oligonucleotide was encapsulated in these vesicles. The study was carried out on two different spherulite™ formulations. The spherulite™ size and stability characteristics are presented. Delivery of encapsulated oligonucleotide was performed on a rat hepatocarcinoma and on a lymphoblastoid T cell line, both expressing the luciferase gene. We showed that spherulites™ were able to transfect both adherent and suspension cell lines and deliver the oligonucleotide to the nucleus. Moreover, 48–62% luciferase inhibition was obtained in the rat hepatocarcinoma cell line when the antisense oligonucleotide targeted to the luciferase coding region was encapsulated at 500 nM concentration in spherulites™ of different compositions.