Peptide-Based Delivery of Oligonucleotides Across Blood–Brain Barrier Model

Delivery of pharmaceutical agents across a blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a challenge for brain cancer therapy. In this study, an in vitro BBB model was utilized to study the delivery of oligonucleotides across brain endothelial cells targeting to glioma cells in a Transwell™ setup. A series of novel peptides were synthesized by covalent conjugation of cell-penetrating peptides with targeting peptides for delivery of gene-based therapeutics. These peptides were screened for passage across the Transwell™ and we found the most efficient peptide PepFect32 from originating PepFect 14 coupled with the targeting peptide angiopep-2. PepFect32/pDNA nanocomplexes exhibited high transcytosis across the BBB in vitro model and the highest transfection efficiency to glioma cells. In conclusion, PepFect32 revealed the most efficient peptide-based vector for pDNA delivery across in vitro BBB model.