Fig. 1.

RALA/pDNA nanoparticles are suitable for rapid uptake by PC3 prostate cancer cells. a Nanoparticles comprising RALA and pEGFP-1 plasmid DNA have size and charge properties suitable for cellular entry. Conjugation of Cy3 to pDNA does not impact size or charge of nanoparticles, while nanoparticles comprising FITC-conjugated RALA and CY3-conjugated pDNA are of a similar size, but more positively charged. b TEM of RALA/CMV-iNOS nanoparticles at N:P 10; scale bar 200 µm. c FITC-RALA/Cy3-pDNA nanoparticles are rapidly taken up by PC3 prostate cancer cells. d Orthogonal sectioning of PC3 cells after 4-h transfection with RALA/Cy3-CMV-iNOS nanoparticles. e Representative dot plots of FITC/Cy3 positivity in PC3s transfected with FITC-RALA/Cy3-pDNA nanoparticles. f PC3s transfected with FITC-RALA/Cy3-pDNA nanoparticles rapidly accumulate and retain both fluorophores up to 1440 min following transfection; FITC content is lost more rapidly than Cy3, with 25% of cells Cy3-positive 7200-min (5 days) post-transfection. Datapoints represent mean ± SEM; N = 3