Apparatus and method for delivering a nucleotide into cell nuclei

US5766901A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University · US

Inventors

• Michael J. Mann · San Francisco, US
• Frank P. Diet · Neunburg vorm Wald, DE
• Victor J. Dzau · Newton, US
• Gary H. Gibbons · Atlanta, US
• Heiko Von Der Leyen · Sehnde, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 4, 1995
• Grant date: Jun 16, 1998
• Expiry date: May 4, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C12N2320/32
• WIPO field: Biotechnology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

The invention presents a system for inducing cells in living intact tissue, in vivo or ex vivo, to accept nucleotides from their extracellular environment and to localize those nucleotides into the cells' nuclei. This system relies on the fact that, when subjected to high pressure, cells take in nucleotides and localize those nucleotides into their nuclei with a transfection rate of greater than 90% in some cases. This invention employs various techniques for placing under high pressure either cells in isolated tissue cultures, or cells in tissues still connected to a living body. Such pressurization techniques include enclosing the tissue in an impermeable and inelastic sheath and injecting fluid into the tissue until a sufficiently high pressure is reached; placing a tissue culture in a dish and placing the dish in a pressurized chamber; mechanical pressurization techniques such as compression of a space containing fluids; occluding the ingress and egress of a vessel or organ to create a watertight compartment within the vessel or organ; and pressurization of an entire organism after delivery of nucleotide to the extracellular environment. This invention also employs various tech…