title: Noncovalent self-assembling nucleic acid-lipid based materials.
abstract: We detail a method originally described by Okahata et al. (Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2002, 23, 252-255) to prepare noncovalent self-assembling films by exchanging the counter-ions of the nucleic acid phosphate moieties with those of cationic lipid amphiphiles. We are able to control the strength and surface properties of these films by varying the composition between blends of DNA of high molecular weight and RNA of low molecular weight. X-ray and AFM results indicate that these films have a lamellar multilayered structure with layers of nucleic acid separated by layers of cationic amphiphile. The tensile strength of the blended films between DNA and RNA increases elastically with DNA content. The length as well as the molecular structure of nucleic acids can affect the topology and mechanical properties of these films. We suspect that the permeability properties of these films make them good candidates for further biological applications in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Wirasak
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Smitthipong
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Surekha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gajria
authors.forename: Youli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Arkadiusz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chworos
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jaeger
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tirrell
mesh_terms: D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D010539:Permeability; D012313:RNA; D013499:Surface Properties; D013718:Tensile Strength
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D012313:RNA