Polyion complex micelles from plasmid DNA and poly(ethylene glycol)–poly(l-lysine) block copolymer as serum-tolerable polyplex system: physicochemical properties of micelles relevant to gene transfection efficiency

Biocompatible micellar nanovectors achieve efficient gene transfer to vascular lesions without cytotoxicity and thrombus formation

“…Note that the polymerization degree of the polycation segment in the block copolymer is one of the determining factors for the physicochemical property of the polyplex micelles. Block copolymers with relatively shorter polycation segments are not able to form stable polypexes, 35 whereas an increase in the polymerization degree of the polycation segment results in the decreased density of PEG palisades to impair the shielding effect. In this regard, P[Asp(DET)] segment with the polymerization degree of 68 was adopted in this study to construct the block copolymer used in the polyplex micelles, balancing the core stability mainly controlled by the polycation length and the high dispersivity in biological entity correlating mainly with the density of PEG palisades.…”

Study on Development of Polymeric Micellar Gene Carrier and Evaluation of Its Functionality

“…1). A biocompatible PEG shell layer minimizes nonspecific interactions with biocomponents, achieves higher stability in a medium containing serum than that of conventional lypoplexes and polyplexes, 11) and has an increased retention time in the bloodstream, 12) which suggests that polyplex micelles may be a promising candidate for carriers that can be used in systemic gene delivery. nevertheless, in order to enhance transfection efficiency into the targeted tissue after systemic administration and achieve successful gene therapy, further appropriate e-mail: moba@nagasaki-u.ac.jp Review functions need to be introduced in polyplex micelles.…”

Polymeric micelles from poly(ethylene glycol)–poly(amino acid) block copolymer for drug and gene delivery

“…Complexation of plasmid DNA (pDNA) with a PEG-polycation such as PEG-poly(lysine) (PEG-PLys) occurs spontaneously, resulting in a polyion complex micelle (PIC micelle or polyplex micelle) with a size of approximately 100 nm (Katayose & Kataoka 1997Oupicky et al 2000). The polyplex micelles exhibit a near neutral zeta potential due to the PEG shell even in the presence of an excess amount of PEG-polycations (Itaka et al 2003). Therefore, non-specific interaction with serum proteins or cells in the blood compartment is expected to be suppressed.…”