2018-03, Boehringer, Stephan, Ruzgys, Paulius, Tamò, Luca, Satkauskas, Saulius, Geiser, Thomas, Gazdhar, Amiq, Hradetzky, David

A challenge for gene therapy is absence of safe and efficient local delivery of therapeutic genetic material. An efficient and reproducible physical method of electrospray for localized and targeted gene delivery is presented. Electrospray works on the principle of coulombs repulsion, under influence of electric field the liquid carrying genetic material is dispersed into micro droplets and is accelerated towards the targeted tissue, acting as a counter electrode. The accelerated droplets penetrate the targeted cells thus facilitating the transfer of genetic material into the cell. The work described here presents the principle of electrospray for gene delivery, the basic instrument design, and the various optimized parameters to enhance gene transfer in vitro. We estimate a transfection efficiency of up to 60% was achieved. We describe an efficient gene transfer method and a potential electrospray-mediated gene transfer mechanism.

2015, Ruzgys, Paulius, Boehringer, Stephan, Šatkauskas, Saulius, Hradetzky, David, Gazdhar, Amiq, Geiser, Thomas

2018, Hradetzky, David, Boehringer, Stephan, Ruzgys, Paulius, Šatkauskas, Saulius, Geiser, Thomas, Gazdhar, Amiq

Electrospray is a process based on creation and acceleration of small sized droplets based on electrostatic repulsion. Spraying plasmid containing liquids this process may be used to transfer genes into cells. Within this paper we report on a method for accessing and evaluating the spray modalities using high speed imaging system with a post processing of image data to obtain estimated volume and velocity of emerging droplets first. Second we investigate on the impact of different media on the spray modalities. Third we evaluate the impact of the spray on cell viability and on transfection efficiency of an eGFP plasmid as reporter gene obtained in an in vitro setup on alveolar epithelial like cells (A549).

2016, Hradetzky, David, Boehringer, Stephan, Ruzgys, Paulius, Satkauskas, Saulius, Gazdhar, Amiq, Geiser, Thomas