Antitumor effect of palmitic acid-conjugated DsiRNA for colon cancer in a mouse subcutaneous tumor model

In this study, we synthesized Dicer-substrate siRNA conjugated with palmitic acid at the 5′-end of the sense strand (C16-DsiRNA), and examined its RNAi effect on β-catenin as a target gene in a colon cancer cell line, HT29Luc, both in vitro and in vivo. We examined the in vitro RNAi effect in HT29Luc cells and found that C16-DsiRNA strongly inhibited expression of the β-catenin gene in comparison with non-modified DsiRNA. Also, high membrane permeability of C16-DsiRNA was exhibited, and it was confirmed that most of the C16-DsiRNA was localized in cytoplasm of HT29Luc cells. In regard to the in vivo RNAi effect, C16-DsiRNA complexed with Invivofectamine targeting the β-catenin gene was locally administered to a subcutaneous tumor formed by implantation of HT29Luc cells into the subcutis of nude mice; we evaluated the effect by measuring the bioluminescence increase, which reflects tumor growth, using an in vivo imaging system. As a result, C16-DsiRNA strongly inhibited the growth of tumors formed in subcutis of nude mice compared with non-modified DsiRNA, and this in vivo RNAi effect lasted up to 15 days. Our results suggest that C16-DsiRNA should be vigorously pursued as a novel nucleic acid medicine for clinical treatment of cancer.