The key obstacle to gene therapy remains the lack of safe and high efficient vector. We designed a block copolymer to form gene vectors, which consists of a hydrophilic segment poly carboxybetaine methacrylate (pCBMA) and a cationic hydrophobic segment poly carboxybetaine methacrylate ethyl ester (pCBMAE) (pCBMA-b-pCBMAE). The ester group on the cationic monomer could be hydrolyzed after endocytosis to enhance the DNA release and reduce the interference to host cell through lowering the charge density. MTT and flow cytometer results show the lower cytotoxicity and higher serum compatibility of pCBMA-b-pCBMAE complexes. The expression of luciferase gene vectors formed with pCBMA-b-pCBMAE in seven cell types is better than 25K branced PEI, and in HUVEC cell even better than Lipofectamine� 2000. The dissociation and degradation study demonstrated that pCBMA-b-pCBMAE can form a quite stable complex which convinced related with its special structure and contributed to high transfection effect. Furthermore, the stable complexes can endure diluted about 20 times without a dramatic falling in luciferase gene expression. These results suggest that the block copolymer could be a very promising gene vector.

Novel zwitterionic block copolymer for gene delivery

247th National Meeting (2014)

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