Novel suction-based in vivo cutaneous DNA transfection platform
Emran O. Lallow, Nandita Chakrabarty Jhumur, Ijaz Ahmed, Sagar B. Kudchodkar, Christine C. Roberts, Moonsup Jeong, Juliet M. Melnik, Sarah H. Park, Kar Muthumani, Jerry W. Shan, Jeffrey D. Zahn, David I. Shreiber, Jonathan P. Singer, Young K. Park, Joel N. Maslow, Hao Lin
Abstract
This work reports a suction-based cutaneous delivery method for in vivo DNA transfection. Following intradermal Mantoux injection of plasmid DNA in a rat model, a moderate negative pressure is applied to the injection site, a technique similar to Chinese báguàn and Middle Eastern hijama cupping therapies. Strong GFP expression was demonstrated with pEGFP-N1 plasmids where fluorescence was observed as early as 1 hour after dosing. Modeling indicates a strong correlation between focal strain/stress and expression patterns. The absence of visible and/or histological tissue injury contrasts with current in vivo transfection systems such as electroporation. Specific utility was demonstrated with a synthetic SARS-CoV-2 DNA vaccine, which generated host humoral immune response in rats with notable antibody production. This method enables an easy-to-use, cost-effective, and highly scalable platform for both laboratorial transfection needs and clinical applications for nucleic acid–based therapeutics and vaccines.