Cationic liposomal delivery technology is claimed to be superior to the present in vitro market leader at siRNA delivery for in vitro functional genomics
IC-Vec, an Anglo-Japanese biopharmaceutical company focused on siRNA and protein therapeutics, has published what it calls a landmark study demonstrating the superiority of its proprietary cationic liposomal delivery technology over competitors.
The data from this study suggest that Sifectamine should be the new reagent of choice for standard in vitro functional genomics applications, the company says.
At the recent BioJapan 2004 meeting, Prof Kazunari Taira (Tokyo University) endorsed Sifectamine as being "the best liposomal siRNA delivery reagent developed so far".
Speaking at the same meeting, Prof Andrew Miller (Imperial College London, IC-Vec chairman) said that "the development and launch of Sifectamine should be of considerable benefit to genomics research".
In a comparison with Lipofectamine2000, the current market leader for liposomal delivery of siRNA, Sifectamine demonstrated minimal in vitro toxicity towards mammalian cells while Lipofectamine2000 showed the reverse effect, says IC-Vec.
Cellular toxicity will complicate and impair functional genomics data therefore siRNA delivery reagents must be essentially free of cellular toxicity side effects to be of proper use.
Sifectamine appears to be the first such reagent to be developed with such a low toxicity profile.
The study, published in the October issue of Biochemistry, indicates that a possible reason for the low toxicity of Sifectamine may be that this reagent induces slower, more controlled uptake and intracellular release of siRNA.
The process of siRNA delivery mediated by cationic liposomes is known as sifection.
With the advent of Sifectamine, sifection should be the preferred mode of siRNA delivery in vitro for all main applications.
IC-Vec has also developed the means to upgrade Sifectamine for in vivo use through the development of Sifectplus nanoparticles.
The company says that results of proof of concept studies using these nanoparticles will be disclosed shortly. Liposomal delivery is widely believed to be a safer way to deliver siRNA and protein therapeutics than viral delivery.
