title: Polyadenylic acid binding on cationic liposomes doped with the non-ionic nucleolipid Lauroyl Uridine.
abstract: In this work unilamellar liposomes doped with a novel non-ionic 5'-Uridine-head nucleolipid, Lauroyl Uridine (LU), were prepared and characterized for their ability to interact with the polynucleotide polyadenylic acid (poly-A). Vesicles, were made up of the cationic lipid DOTAP (1,2-Dioleoyl-3-Trimethylammonium-Propane), the zwitterionic lipid DOPE (1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphoethanolamine), and the novel amphiphile Lauroyl Uridine. The influence of the non-ionic nucleolipid on essential liposomes properties, such as the structure and net charge was first investigated by a comparative analysis performed on the different lipoplex preparations by means of ζ-potential and size measurements. Both structure and net charge of liposomes were shown to be not modified by the presence of the non-ionic nucleolipid. The role of the synthetic lipid inserted as anchor in the liposome bilayer in the condensation process between vesicles and the polynucleotide poly-A was then analyzed by UV-vis, Circular Dichroism (CD) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. The data presented comparative UV-vis analyses that evidenced the occurrence of staking interactions in the poly-A only in LU containing lipoplexes. CD and NMR studies indicated the presence of H-bonding interaction between Lauroyl Uridine containing vesicles and the polynucleotide poly-A. The results presented in this work support a role for Lauroyl Uridine in A-U molecular recognition, thus, suggesting that cationic liposomes doped with the non-ionic nucleolipid Lauroyl Uridine could represent a model system to study molecular interactions among single stranded polynucleotides and lipid anchor bearing the complementary bases.
authors.affiliation: Consorzio Interuniversitario per lo sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase (CSGI), c/o Department of Food Technology (DISTAAM), Università del Molise, via De Sanctis, I-86100 Campobasso, Italy. francesca.cuomo@unimol.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cuomo
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ceglie
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colafemmina
authors.forename: Raimondo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Germani
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Savelli
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lopez
mesh_terms: D002412:Cations; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D007477:Ions; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011061:Poly A / Q000737:chemistry*; D011119:Polynucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014529:Uridine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D007477:Ions; D008055:Lipids; D008081:Liposomes; D011119:Polynucleotides; D011061:Poly A; D014529:Uridine