The delivery of
tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing
ligand (TRAIL) gene into
cancer cells is a promising strategy for
cancer treatment. However, the low transfection efficacy and/or the toxicity of vectors severely hamper the translation of TRAIL gene therapy into the clinics. In this article, we employed our recently developed fluorinated
dendrimer as a vector to deliver plasmid encoding TRAIL (pTRAIL) into
cancer cells for
cancer treatment, which holds the advantages of both excellent transfection efficacy and low toxicity. Fluorinated
poly(amidoamine)
dendrimer (G4-F735) represented much higher TRAIL gene transfection efficacy than a series of transfection
reagents including
poly(ethylene imine) (PEI), SuperFect and
Lipofectamine 2000, leading to a much higher cell apoptosis efficacy. The G4-F735/pTRAIL complex, compared with PEI/pTRAIL, could more efficiently destroy three-dimensional multicellular spheroids consisting of MDA-MB-231 cells, and suppress the
tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, G4-F735 showed minimal toxicity in vitro and undetectable systemic toxicity in vivo. From this study, the fluorinated
dendrimer offers a promising prospect for TRAIL gene therapy.