Hepatitis B Virus-Like Particle: Targeted Delivery of Plasmid Expressing Short Hairpin RNA for Silencing the Bcl-2 Gene in Cervical Cancer Cells

Gene therapy research has advanced to clinical trials, but it is hampered by unstable nucleic acids packaged inside carriers and there a lack of specificity towards targeted sites in the body. This study aims address gene limitations encapsidating plasmid synthesizing short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that targets anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 using truncated hepatitis B core antigen (tHBcAg) virus-like particle (VLP). A shRNA sequence targeting was synthesized cloned into pSilencer 2.0-U6 vector. The recombinant plasmid, namely PshRNA, encapsidated tHBcAg VLP conjugated with folic acid (FA) produce FA-tHBcAg-PshRNA VLP. Electron microscopy revealed an icosahedral structure similar unmodified Delivery HeLa cells overexpressing folate receptor significantly downregulated expression at 48 72 h post-transfection. 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay demonstrated cells’ viability reduced from 89.46% 24 64.52% 60.63%, respectively, As conclusion, can be used as carrier for receptor-mediated delivery therapeutic encoding silencing cancer cells.