Fig. 2

Synthetic evolution of hybrid gene delivery systems made of GO nano-sheets surface-functionalized with lipids described by a multi-step validation approach. a Sketch of the synthesis’ procedure of the GO-based complexes from their ‘synthetic identity’ (grapholipoplexes) to their ‘biological identity’ (biocoronated grapholipoplexes). b Physical chemical characterization of DOTAP grapholipoploxes in terms of size and zeta potential changes by varying DOTAP/complex weight ratio (Rw) through DLS measurements. c Transfection efficiency (TE) measured as relative light units (RLU) to milligrams of proteins, and cell viability of GO, DOTAP and grapholipoplex once administered to HeLa cells. d Confocal microscopy images of Hela cells treated with DNA- red labeled GO complexes (left panel) and grapholipolexes (right panel). Cell nuclei are marked with DAPI. The same three characterization steps (i.e., DLS characterization, TE and cell viability and confocal microscopy experiments) were performed on multicomponent grapholipoplexes (panel e, f,and g, respectively) and multicomponent grapholipoplexes once incubated with different percentages of human plasma (HP) (panel h, i, and j, respectively). Sketch Adapted from Di Santo, et al. Nanoscale 11.6 (2019): 2733–2741; Di Santo, et al. Applied Physics Letters 114.23 (2019): 233,701 and Quagliarini, et al. Pharmaceutics 12.2 (2020): 113