Polyethylene glycol-grafted poly-L-lysine as polymeric gene carrier.
A new series of gene carriers, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted poly-L-lysine (PLL, mol. wt. = 25000) with three different PEG-grafted ratios (5, 10 and 25 mole%, which means 5, 10 and 25% of epsilon-amino group of PLL was modified by PEG), was synthesized. These new gene carriers, named comb-shaped PEG-g-PLL copolymer, showed a 5- to 30-fold increase in transfection efficiency compared to PLL alone on a human carcinoma cell line. It is likely that Hep G2 cells were transfected by plasmid DNA/PEG-g-PLL complexes through an endocytosis mechanism due to the fact that chloroquine increased transfection efficiency. Although Lipofectin, a cationic lipid formulation, showed slightly higher transfection efficiency than PEG-g-PLL in Hep G2 cells, our designed PEG-g-PLL demonstrated lower cytotoxicity, early gene expression and maintenance of gene expression for up to 96 h.
Choi
Y H
YH
Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, South Korea.
Liu
F
F
Kim
J S
JS
Choi
Y K
YK
Park
J S
JS
Kim
S W
SW
D002470:Cell Survival; D004337:Drug Carriers; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D010957:Plasmids; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011107:Polylysine / Q000737:chemistry*; D014162:Transfection / Q000379:methods*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D004337:Drug Carriers; D011107:Polylysine; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols