Insight into the role of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) conjugation onto poly(ethylenimine): cell viability and gene transfection studies.

Alireza Nouri, Rita Castro, Visvaldas Kairys, José L Santos, João Rodrigues, Yulin Li, Helena Tomás

Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine 2012 Dec

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In the present study, the effect of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) conjugation onto branched poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) with different grafting degree was examined for gene delivery applications. The DMAEMA-grafted-PEI conjugates were characterized and complexed with plasmid DNA (pDNA) at various concentrations, and the physicochemical properties, cell viability, and in vitro transfection efficiency of the complexes were evaluated in HEK 293T cells. Computational techniques were used to analyze the interaction energies and possible binding modes between DNA and conjugates at different grafting degrees. The cytotoxicity analysis and in vitro transfection efficiency of the conjugate/pDNA complexes exhibited a beneficial effect of DMAEMA conjugation when compared to PEI alone. The computational results revealed that the DNA/vector interaction energy decreases with increasing grafting degree, which can be associated to an enhanced release of the pDNA from the carrier once inside cells. The results indicate the significance of DMAEMA conjugation onto PEI as a promising approach for gene delivery applications.

Citation

Alireza Nouri, Rita Castro, Visvaldas Kairys, José L Santos, João Rodrigues, Yulin Li, Helena Tomás. Insight into the role of N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) conjugation onto poly(ethylenimine): cell viability and gene transfection studies. Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine. 2012 Dec;23(12):2967-80