Graphene oxide and silicene as 2D platforms for complexation and intracellular delivery of siRNA

چکیده مقاله

A successful small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery system is dependent on the development of a suitable siRNA carrier. The reports have shown that two-dimensional nanomaterials could effectively deliver siRNA into tumor cells and induce a gene-silencing effect. To follow up on research, in this study, graphene oxide (GrO) and silicene (SIC) nanosheets as carriers for siRNA delivery are designed and compared by molecular dynamics simulation. Our results reveal that siRNA forms stable complexes with GrO and SIC nanosheets (interaction energy = −2683.97 and −588.41 kJ/mol, respectively). It is found that the interaction of siRNA with GrO and SIC is mostly dominated by the electrostatic interaction energy. Recent works have demonstrated that the temperature factor can affect siRNA adsorption on nanosheet surfaces. According to this, we performed a simulation study to appraise the effect of this factor on siRNA-loading. Since effective siRNA delivery across cell membranes has become one of the main challenges in gene silencing therapy, the interaction of the siRNA@carrier complexes and cell membranes is also investigated. Our computational findings demonstrated the siRNA@GrO complex with membrane has a more attractive interaction compared to the siRNA@SIC complex.