Fig 2. Addition of sHGP-9r to facilitate endosome escape of nanocomplexes.

(A, Top) Confocal microscopy images of HeLa cells pretreated with the early endosome marker-RFP, and subsequently incubated with I4R-9r PwSN carrying FITC labeled siRNA. Images were pseudocolored for visualization: blue = DAPI; red = early endosome marker-RFP; green = FITC-siRNA. (A, Bottom) Confocal microscopy images of HeLa cells after treatment with FITC-siRNA encapsulated in I4R-9r PwSNs, which compose of sHGP-9r at molar ratio of 1:19 (sHGP-9r: I4R-9r). (B) The gene silencing efficacies against GAPDH protein with or without the sHGP-9r peptides was assessed by Western blot. Results are presented as mean of relative immunoblot intensities ± standard deviation (n = 6).