Hydrophobicity Tuning of Cationic Polyaspartamide Derivatives for Enhanced Antisense Oligonucleotide Delivery.

Jongmin Yum, Fadlina Aulia, Keisuke Kamiya, Mao Hori, Nan Qiao, Beob Soo Kim, Mitsuru Naito, Satomi Ogura, Tetsuya Nagata, Takanori Yokota, Satoshi Uchida, Satoshi Obika, Hyun Jin Kim, Kanjiro Miyata

Bioconjugate chemistry 2024 Feb 21

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Various cationic polymers are used to deliver polyplex-mediated antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). However, few studies have investigated the structural determinants of polyplex functionalities in polymers. This study focused on the polymer hydrophobicity. A series of amphiphilic polyaspartamide derivatives possessing various hydrophobic (R) moieties together with cationic diethylenetriamine (DET) moieties in the side chain (PAsp(DET/R)s) were synthesized to optimize the R moieties (or hydrophobicity) for locked nucleic acid (LNA) gapmer ASO delivery. The gene knockdown efficiencies of PAsp(DET/R) polyplexes were plotted against a hydrophobicity parameter, logD7.3, of PAsp(DET/R), revealing that the gene knockdown efficiency was substantially improved by PAsp(DET/R) with logD7.3 higher than -2.4. This was explained by the increased polyplex stability and improved cellular uptake of ASO payloads. After intratracheal administration, the polyplex samples with a higher logD7.3 than -2.4 induced a significantly higher gene knockdown in the lung tissue compared with counterparts with lower hydrophobicity and naked ASO. These results demonstrate that the hydrophobicity of PAsp(DET/R) is crucial for efficient ASO delivery in vitro and in vivo.

Citation

Jongmin Yum, Fadlina Aulia, Keisuke Kamiya, Mao Hori, Nan Qiao, Beob Soo Kim, Mitsuru Naito, Satomi Ogura, Tetsuya Nagata, Takanori Yokota, Satoshi Uchida, Satoshi Obika, Hyun Jin Kim, Kanjiro Miyata. Hydrophobicity Tuning of Cationic Polyaspartamide Derivatives for Enhanced Antisense Oligonucleotide Delivery. Bioconjugate chemistry. 2024 Feb 21;35(2):125-131