Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Drug Deliv Sci Technol. 2021 Jul 11;65:102728. doi: 10.1016/j.jddst.2021.102728

Figure 2. Lipid-based strategies for the delivery of CRISPR/Cas9.

Figure 2.

a.) Liposomes are the traditional lipid-based formulations capable of encapsulating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules. b.) To promote cell targeting, the lipid surface can be modified with a ligand, such as an antibody, peptide, or aptamer to interact with the receptors of target cells. c.) From the literature, a schematic diagram of the synthesis of lipid-coated gold nanoclusters (LGCP) adapted from Wang et al.[67] Specifically, the HIV-1-transactivator of transcription (TAT) peptide was used to modify the surface of cationic gold nanoclusters (GNs). The positively charged TAT-GNs and the negatively charged Cas9 proteins and sgRNA plasmids were mixed to form a ternary complex (GCP). GCP was further encapsulated in an anionic lipid shell (1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammoniumpropane (DOTAP)/dioleoyl-phosphatidylethanol-amine (DOPE)/cholesterol, followed by post-modification with polyethylene glycol-phospholipids (DSPE-PEG).[67]