Optimized technique allows B cells to be transfected with extraneous DNA

The introduction of foreign DNA into human cells through a process known as 'transfection' allows scientists to study gene expression in the laboratory and enables clinicians to treat genetic diseases.

The methods commonly used for this procedure work for most cell types, except when it comes to B cells—a group of infection-fighting white blood cells in the immune system that have proven extremely difficult to transfect without the use of viruses. Viruses, however, pose a number of safety issues.

A team led by scientists at the A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute and the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing has now developed a non-viral strategy to deliver DNA into this intractable cell type. By optimizing a technique termed sonoporation, the researchers managed to introduce genes into B cells with high rates of success.

"Our work is the first to demonstrate the use of sonoporation as an alternative, non-viral method for stable and highly efficient transfection of recalcitrant B cell lines," says biomedical engineer and study leader Andre Boon-Hwa Choo.

Sonoporation combines ultrasonic sound frequencies and tiny gas-filled bubbles to generate transient pores in the cell membrane through which DNA can travel. Choo and his colleagues tweaked the acoustic energy levels and microbubble concentrations to deliver a circular piece of DNA that they could track visually in a trio of human B cell lines.