title: Hydrogen-bonding dramatically modulates the gene transfection efficacy of surface-engineered dendrimers.
abstract: Dendrimers have shown great promise in the design of efficient gene vectors. However, high transfection efficacy is usually associated with serious cytotoxicity for these cationic polymers. Here, we report a facile strategy to prepare surface-engineered dendrimers with a dramatic transfection efficacy and reduced cytotoxicity. Surface-engineered dendrimers with multiple hydrogen bonding ligands such as guanamine and nucleobase derivatives show superior efficacy and low cytotoxicity on commonly used cells as well as 3D tumor spheroids to representative transfection reagents such as Lipofectamine 2000. Complementary multiple hydrogen bonding interactions between the modified ligands and DNA nucleobases play essential roles in efficient gene transfection. The hydrogen-bond modulation strategy represents a promising tool in the design of highly efficient and less cytotoxic gene materials.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, P.R. China. yycheng@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Naimin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bingwei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jianru
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Yitong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yujia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yiyun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D011108:Polymers; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D050091:Dendrimers; D011108:Polymers; D004247:DNA