Cell Compatible Arginine Containing Cationic Polymer: One-Pot Synthesis and Preliminary Biological Assessment

Synthetic cationic polymers are of interest as both nonviral vectors for intracellular gene delivery and antimicrobial agents. For both applications synthetic polymers containing guanidine groups are of special interest since such kind of organic compounds/polymers show a high transfection potential along with antibacterial activity. It is important that the delocalization of the positive charge of the cationic group in guanidine significantly decreases the toxicity compared to the ammonium functionality. One of the most convenient ways for incorporating guanidine groups is the synthesis of polymers composed of the amino acid arginine (Arg) via either application of Arg-based monomers or chemical modification of polymers with derivatives of Arg. It is also important to have biodegradable cationic polymers that will be cleared from the body after their function as transfection or antimicrobial agent is fulfilled. This chapter deals with a two-step/onepot synthesis of a new biodegradable cationic polymer-poly(ethylene malamide) containing L-arginine methyl ester covalently attached to the macrochains in beta-position of the malamide residue via the alpha-amino group. The goal cationic polymer was synthesized by in situ interaction of arginine methyl ester dihydrochloride with intermediary poly(ethylene epoxy succinimide) formed by polycondensation of di-p-nitrophenyl-trans-epoxy succinate with ethylenediamine. The cell compatibility study with Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and insect Schneider 2 cells (S2) within the concentration range of 0.02-500 mg/mL revealed that the new polymer is not cytotoxic. It formed nanocomplexes with pDNA (120-180 nm in size) at low polymer/DNA weight ratios (WR = 5-10). A preliminarily transfection efficiency of the Arg-containing new cationic polymer was assessed using CHO, S2, H5, and Sf9 cells.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Lucia Baldi Unser, Christine Wandrey, Xiao Shen, Nino Zavradashvili, Tamar Memanishvili
2014
Conference paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/203921?ln=en

About this result

Related concepts (9)

Polymer

A polymer (ˈpɒlᵻmər; Greek poly-, "many" + -mer, "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic and natural polymers play essential and ubiquitous roles in everyday life. Polymers range from familiar synthetic plastics such as polystyrene to natural biopolymers such as DNA and proteins that are fundamental to biological structure and function.

Transfection

Transfection is the process of deliberately introducing naked or purified nucleic acids into eukaryotic cells. It may also refer to other methods and cell types, although other terms are often preferred: "transformation" is typically used to describe non-viral DNA transfer in bacteria and non-animal eukaryotic cells, including plant cells. In animal cells, transfection is the preferred term as transformation is also used to refer to progression to a cancerous state (carcinogenesis) in these cells.

Arginine

Arginine is the amino acid with the formula (H2N)(HN)CN(H)(CH2)3CH(NH2)CO2H. The molecule features a guanidino group appended to a standard amino acid framework. At physiological pH, the carboxylic acid is deprotonated (−CO2−) and both the amino and guanidino groups are protonated, resulting in a cation. Only the -arginine (symbol Arg or R) enantiomer is found naturally. Arg residues are common components of proteins. It is encoded by the codons CGU, CGC, CGA, CGG, AGA, and AGG.