Synthesis and characterization of novel biodegradable cationic polymers：poly-L-lysine grafted polyethylenimine as effective gene vectors

• Main Authors: HOU, TING-YI, 侯婷譯
• Other Authors: CHERNG, JONG-YUH
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/66140037950494538945

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 化學暨生物化學研究所 === 101 === Over the past few years, a number of studies have been conducted to focus on the hydrolysis property of imine groups. Research on cationic polymers contain imine groups in related to their capability of gene delivery has not yet been investigated. In this research, a new series of poly(L-lysine) – grafted – polyethylenimine（PLI）were successfully synthesized. The grafted polymer contains poly(L-lysine) as a backbone with and low-molecular-weight polyethylenimine（LMW-PEI）in the side chains via imine linkages, was examined for their potentials as non-viral gene vectors which deliver plasmid DNA into cells in vitro. The electrophoretic mobility on agarose gels, dynamic light scattering and zeta potential analyses of polymer∕DNA complexes confirmed that PLIs were able to self-assemble with plasmid DNA to form nano-scaled（around 200 nm）and positively charged complexes（~ + 25 mV）. PLIs hardly showed any cytotoxicity on COS-7 cells duo to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. Most importantly, in vitro transfection results showed that PLIs displayed a far better transfection efficiency in comparison to LMW-PEI and poly(L-lysine). Moreover gene delivery results even better than the commercially available high-molecular-weight polyethylenimine (PEI25K). Therefore, these new cationic polymers with imines having low cytotoxicity and high transfection efficiency may be applied as safe and efficient non-viral gene delivery vectors.