Epilepsy is a neurodegenerative disease that affects more than 3 million people within the United States. Epilepsy is characterized by the continued presence of seizures, which occurs when there is an imbalance between the neurotransmission mediated by the central nervous system neurotransmitters, glutamate and γ-amino butyric acid (GABA). Cationic, polymeric nanoparticles have been hypothesized to be a potential transporter for negatively charged, small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA), which can be used for selective gene silencing of the GABAergic genes, in the potential neurological model organism, D. tigrinia, a species of planarian flatworm. In this study, polymeric nanoparticles where fabricated from alanine-based polymers p(H2N-Ala-EMA), p(H2N-Ala-EMA)-b-PMMA and py-p(H2N-Ala-EMA)-b-PMMA, through the use of dialysis and then characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Biological toxicity tests were carried out for both varying concentrations of polymeric nanoparticle solutions in whole and regenerating D. tigrina worms. Conformation and structural characterization of si-RNA and polymeric nanoparticle complexes were done using gel retardation assay, SEM and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Future investigations will include characterizing siRNA-polymeric nanoparticle complexes with dynamic light scattering and utilizing such complexes to selectively silence the GABAergic genes of interest in D. tigrina.

Characterization and toxicity of alanine-based polymeric nanoparticles in D. tigrina planarian flatworms

249th National Meeting (2015)

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