Functionalized layered double hydroxide nanoparticles conjugated with disulfide-linked polycation brushes for advanced gene delivery.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have aroused great attention as potential nanosized drug delivery carriers, but independent inorganic LDH wrapped with DNA shows very low transfection efficiency. To manipulate and control the surface properties of LDH nanoparticles is of crucial importance in the designing of LDH-based drug carriers. In this work, surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) is employed to tailor the functionality of LDH surfaces in a well-controlled manner and produce a series of well-defined novel gene delivery vectors (termed as LDH-PDs), where a flexible three-step method was first developed to introduce the ATRP initiation sites containing disulfide bonds onto LDH surfaces. In comparison the pristine LDH particles, the resultant LDH-PDs exhibited better ability to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) and much higher levels to delivery genes in different cell lines including COS7 and HepG2 cell lines. Moreover, the LDH-PDs also could largely enhance cellular uptake. This present study demonstrates that functionalization of bioinorganic LDH with flexible polycation brushes is an effective means to produce new LDH-based gene delivery systems.

Multiarm cationic star polymers by atom transfer radical polymerization from ß-cyclodextrin cores: influence of arm number and length on gene delivery.

Controlled ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) core-based cationic star polymers have attracted considerable attention as non-viral gene carriers. Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) could be readily used to produce the star-shaped polymers. The precise control of the number of initiation sites on the multifunctional core was of crucial importance to the investigation of the structure-property relationship of the functional star gene carriers. Herein, the controlled multiarm star polymers consisting of a ß-CD core and various arm lengths of poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) were prepared via ATRP from the chloroacetylated ß-CD with well-designed initiation sites. Generally, these star polycations can condense plasmid DNA into 100-150 nm nanoparticles with positive zeta potentials of 30-40 mV at N/P ratios (star polymer to DNA ratios) of 17 or higher. The effects of arm numbers and lengths on gene delivery were investigated in detail. With a fixed length of the PDMAEMA arm, the fewer the number of arms, the lower the toxicity. The star polycations with suitable arm numbers possess the best transfection ability. On the other hand, with the fixed molecular weights, the shorter the arms, the lower the toxicity. The polymers with 21 arms possess the lowest transfection efficiency.

Anti-fouling surfaces by combined molecular self-assembly and surface-initiated ATRP for micropatterning active proteins.

A simple method by combined molecular self assembly and surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) was proposed to prepare a biologically inert surface for micropatterning active proteins. The MPEG microdomains having a short terminal poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) unit were prepared by self assembly of 2-(methyoxy(polyethylenoxy) propyl)trimethoxy silane (MPEG-silane). The remaining local regions or poly(poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) (P(PEGMEMA-co-GMA)) microdomains were produced via SI-ATRP of PEGMEMA and GMA comonomers. The epoxy groups of the P(PEGMEMA-co-GMA) microdomains were used directly for covalent coupling of an active protein (human immunoglobulin or IgG) via the ring-opening reaction to produce the IgG-coupled microdomains. The IgG-coupled microdomains interact only and specifically with target anti-IgG, while the other antifouling microregions from self-assembled monolayers with short terminal PEG units effectively prevent specific and non-specific protein fouling. When extended to other active biomolecules, microarrays for specific and non-specific analyte interactions with a high signal-to-noise ratio could be readily tailored.