Quantification
of downregulation of mRNA levels of selected targeted
proteins. MDA-MB-231 cells were treated with peptide/siRNA complexes
with peptide/siRNA w/w ratios of 40:1 and 120:1 for linear and cyclic
peptides, respectively, while the effect of incorporation of DOPE
in the delivery system was also evaluated. Lipofectamine 2000 (Lipo.)
was used as the positive control. The mRNA levels of KSP (A) and JAK2
(B) was quantified after 48 h of exposure to siRNA complexes using
quantitative PCR. Data are presented as mean of RQ compared to cells
exposed to saline (normalized using mRNA levels of β-actin), n = 3, and the error bars represent standard deviation.
The asterisks identify the study groups that demonstrated a significant
increase in silencing efficiency as a result of DOPE incorporation.
DOPE (low) and (high) indicate the siRNA uptake of the cells exposed
to DOPE (with no peptide) using the lowest and highest DOPE final
concentrations used in the other study groups included in the experiment.
(C) Correlation between silencing efficiency for the two selected
targets: RQs presented in (A) and (B) are plotted on x and y axes, respectively, and the correlation factor
(R) was calculated. The silencing data show significant
correlation (p < 0.01) between the two selected
targets.