1. Polyethylenimine-grafted polycarbonates as biodegradable polycations for gene delivery
- Author
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Yan-Xin Lin, Chang-Fang Wang, Feng He, Tao Jiang, and Ren-Xi Zhuo
- Subjects
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ,Materials science ,Cell Survival ,Green Fluorescent Proteins ,Biophysics ,Biocompatible Materials ,Bioengineering ,Buffers ,Gene delivery ,Transfection ,Cell Line ,Biomaterials ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Microscopy, Electron, Transmission ,Polymer chemistry ,Polyamines ,Humans ,Polyethyleneimine ,Lipase ,Luciferases ,Cytotoxicity ,Electrophoresis, Agar Gel ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,Polyethylenimine ,Polycarboxylate Cement ,Cell Death ,biology ,Gene Transfer Techniques ,DNA ,Polymer ,Biodegradation ,Polyelectrolytes ,Combinatorial chemistry ,Polyelectrolyte ,chemistry ,Mechanics of Materials ,Ceramics and Composites ,biology.protein ,Biological Assay - Abstract
Polycations as one of non-viral vectors have gained increasing attentions. In this paper, polyethylenimine(PEI)-grafted polycarbonates (PMAC-g-PEIx) were synthesized as a kind of biodegradable polycations for gene delivery. Backbone polymer, poly(5-methyl-5-allyloxycarbonyl-trimethylene carbonate) (PMAC), was synthesized in bulk catalyzed by immobilized porcine pancreas lipase (IPPL). Then, PMAC-O, the allyl epoxidation product of PMAC, was further modified by PEIx with low molecular weight (x = 423, 800 and 1800). The MWs of PMAC-g-PEIx, measured by GPC-MALLS, were 81,900, 179,900 and 200,600 g/mol with polydispersities of 1.2, 1.4 and 1.7, respectively. PMAC-g-PEIx could form positively charged nano-sized particles (30-90 nm) with pDNA, and all the three PAMC-g-PEIx/DNA polyplexes had similar buffer capabilities. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the PAMC-g-PEIx showed much low cytotoxicity and enhanced transfection efficiency could be found in comparison with PEI25K in 293T cells. Furthermore, pre-incubation of PMAC-g-PEI1800 showed a weakening binding capacity with DNA. The biodegradability of PMAC-g-PEIx can facilitate the efficient release of pDNA from polyplexes and reduce cell cytotoxicity. These results suggested that PMAC-g-PEIx would be a promising non-viral biodegradable vector for gene delivery system.
- Published
- 2009