Bio-recognition molecules onto nano-crystals of carbonate apatite for cell-targeted gene delivery and expression

The development of nano-particles of DNA/carbonate apatite having virus-like properties that enables the effective delivery of a foreign DNA to a specific organ was investigated. The DNA or carbonate apatite particles were incubated with a specific cell-recognizable protein for 30 min at 37°C and then further incubated with bovine serum albumin (BSA). Particles upon coming in contact with serum proteins or BSA showed microscopically visible brownian motion. By using galactose-specific lectin, it was shown that asialofetuin having triantennary galactose terminated sugar chains, could still present galactose residues efficiently while being absorbed onto the crystals along with BSA.