title: Cationic vesicles of a carnitine-derived single-tailed surfactant: physicochemical characterization and evaluation of in vitro gene transfection efficiency.
abstract: Spontaneous vesicle formation in water by single-chain surfactants is rare. Here we show that in aqueous solution, a single-chain cationic surfactant 3-(dodecylcarbamoyl-2-hydroxypropyl)-trimethylammonium chloride (C12-CAR) derived from D,L-carnitine spontaneously forms vesicles with hydrodynamic diameters in the range of 30-70 nm. A detailed self-assembly study of the C12-CAR surfactant was performed for the first time by use of a combination of techniques, including surface tension, conductivity, fluorescence probe, dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. The cationic surfactant was found to have a reasonably low critical aggregation concentration (3.4±0.2 mM) in water at 298 K. The vesicles were observed to be stable at the physiological temperature (310 K) over a long period of time. Although the vesicles formed were found to be unstable and exhibit vesicle-to-tubule transition in the presence of salt, in the presence of 10 mol% cholesterol the stability of vesicles is enhanced. When compared with lipofectamine-2000, the C12-CAR was found to act as an effective gene transfection agent in COS-1 cell line. The surfactant-DNA complex was also found to be nontoxic toward CHO cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Trilochan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Patra
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Subhajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India. Electronic address: joydey@chem.iitkgp.ernet.in.
authors.forename: Joykrishna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dey
mesh_terms: D002331:Carnitine / Q000737:chemistry*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008823:Micelles; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008823:Micelles; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D002331:Carnitine
keywords: Carnitine; Gene transfection; Microscopy; Nanotubes; Toxicity; Vesicle