Polyethylenimine-poly(amidoamine) dendrimer modified with l-arginines as an efficient gene delivery vector

Abstract

In this study, we synthesized polyethylenimine-polyamidoamine-arginine dendritic polymers (PPRs) as vectors for gene delivery. Four polymers, polyethylenimine-polyamidoamine generation 1 (PP1), PP2, PP1-arginine (PP1R), and PP2-arginine (PP2R), were synthesized and confirmed by 1H NMR. PPRs were shown to interact with and condense plasmid DNA effectively to form 171-179 nm polyplexes with 30-32 mV of zeta potentials at weight ratio 4:1 (polymer:plasmid DNA). Cytotoxicity of PPRs/pDNA complexes was lower than that of polyethylenimine (PEI) 25 kDa/pDNA complexes for all concentration ranges tested. In 293 cells, PP1R/pDNA complexes showed higher gene transfection efficiency than PEI 25 kDa. These results suggest that PPR could be promising dendritic gene carriers for gene therapy.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]