Inducible Dynamic Behavior of Polyion Complex Vesicles by Disrupting Charge Balance

Nanostructure Control of an Antibiotic‐Based Polyion Complex Using a Series of Polycations with Different Side‐Chain Modification Rates

“…In previous reports, well‐defined PIC nanostructures, such as micelles and vesicles, have often been obtained by mixing polyions at a balanced charge ratio of cationic units to anionic units (C/A = 1:1), [ 17 ] while in some other cases, the PIC nanostructures can also be obtained at nonstoichiometric charge ratios. [ 18,27,28 ] In this study, no nanostructure formation or increase in scattered light intensity was observed from DLS results for the PICs of unmodified PEG‐PLL and CMS with a C/A ratio of both 1.0 and 1.5 (data not shown) probably due to the low net charge of polymyxins (Figure 1). [ 29 ] However, PICs prepared from PEG‐(PLL 1− x /PG x ) and CMS at C/A ratios of 1.0 and 1.5, showed sufficient scattered light intensity and explicit formation of the nanostructures (Table S2, Supporting Information).…”

Dynamic frustrated charge hotspots created by charge density modulation sequester globular proteins into complex coacervates

“…To simplify the system for further discussion, postulating the formation of unit PIC is effective, which is a minimum-sized PIC, typically composed of a single aniomer and catiomer pair, as an elemental component of the entire assembly. [43][44][45] In the present study, a PIC pair of a low charge density polyanion and a high charge density polycation yields a low-positively charged unit PIC (Fig. 3c and Scheme 1), which can easily interact with negatively charged proteins.…”

Robust Polyion Complex Vesicles (PICsomes) Based on PEO‐b‐poly(amino acid) Copolymers Combining Electrostatic and Hydrophobic Interactions: Formation, siRNA Loading and Intracellular Delivery

“…Once Z was increased above one (up to 1.4), almost perfectly neutral particles were obtained, with a tendency to make large aggregates, suggesting neutralization among polymer chains and particle growth, presumably by Ostwald ripening mechanism as reported previously for PICsomes with an excess of added polycations. [ 53 ] From these DLS and zetametry results, we observed that neutralization was obtained slightly above 1:1 charge ratio, more precisely around Z = 1.4, that might be due to a difference in the protonation state of the charged residues among the chains, PGlu and PLys being both weak electrolytes ( Figure a and Table 2 ). For the PICsome formation from PEO 114 ‐based copolymers, DLS measurements were also performed at different charge ratio Z : Results revealed more aggregation and larger polydispersity indexes (PDI) than with PEO 46 ‐based copolymers.…”