Issue 3, 2015

Cationic amphiphilic calixarenes to compact DNA into small nanoparticles for gene delivery

Abstract

Macrocycles have been attracting increasing attention as scaffolds for preparation of non-viral vectors for gene delivery. Here, following our earlier report, a series of amphiphilic calixarenes bearing cationic choline or N-(2-aminoethyl)-N,N-dimethylammonium groups at the upper rim and alkyl chains at the lower rim were synthesized. The effect of the length of aliphatic chains and the structure of the head group on their self-assembly, interaction with DNA, properties of their DNA complexes, transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity was studied. It was found that longer alkyl chains favor formation of small virus-sized DNA nanoparticles with low polydispersity. Moreover, longer alkyl chains, such as dodecyl groups, significantly improved the transfection efficiency, so transfection was observed in the presence of fetal bovine serum as well as with or without a helper lipid. Finally, we observed that the cytotoxicity of these calixarenes clearly decreased with increase of the chain length. On the other hand, the presence of four additional amino groups, which could be protonated at pH < 7, affected only the stoichiometry of the complexes with DNA without influencing their transfection efficiency or cytotoxicity. The results obtained provide new insights for designing non-viral vectors based on macrocyclic molecules.

Graphical abstract: Cationic amphiphilic calixarenes to compact DNA into small nanoparticles for gene delivery

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Aug 2014
Accepted
29 Oct 2014
First published
31 Oct 2014

New J. Chem., 2015,39, 1654-1664

Author version available

Cationic amphiphilic calixarenes to compact DNA into small nanoparticles for gene delivery

R. V. Rodik, A. Anthony, V. I. Kalchenko, Y. Mély and A. S. Klymchenko, New J. Chem., 2015, 39, 1654 DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ01395F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements