Author(s)

Bozhang Yu

Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Reducible or imidazolyl polycations of block poly(imidazole/2-dimethyl aminoethyl) are of promising in gene delivery. Dimeric poly(2-dimethyl aminoethyl) methacrylate-block-polyvinylimidazole (rDPDMAEMAIM) and reducible poly (2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate (rDPDMAEMA) with single disulfide bond in the backbone was synthesized by oxidizing their dithioester-terminated polymers. The polyplexes sizes, rDPDMAEMAIM/pDNA and rDPDMAEMA/ pDNA (plasmid DNA) are in the ranges of 100 nm - 150 nm at the weight ratio of 12:1, and the zeta potential of rDPDMAEMAIM/pDNA from 9.6 mV to 22.7 mV in PBS solutions increases with their weight ratios of 1:1 to 18:1. The results show that the rDPDMAEMAIM/pDNA polyplexes have higher transfection activity and lower cytotoxicity than that of rDPDMAEMAIM/pDNA against 293T cells in vitro in the presence of serum, indicating that the PDMAEMAIM present a promising nonviral gene vector.

Reducible Polymer; Gene Expression; Transfection; Cytotoxicity

B. Yu, "Reducible Poly (2-Dimethylaminoethyl) Methacrylate-Block-Polyvinylimidazole: Synthesis, Transfection Activity in Vitro," Journal of Biomaterials and Nanobiotechnology, Vol. 3 No. 1, 2012, pp. 118-124. doi: 10.4236/jbnb.2012.31016.