Polyphosphonium polymers for siRNA delivery: An efficient and nontoxic alternative to polyammonium carriers

Type
Article
Authors
Ornelas-Megiatto, Cátia
Wich, Peter R.
Frechet, Jean cc
KAUST Department
Chemical Science Program
Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2012-02

Metadata
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Abstract
A water-soluble polyphosphonium polymer was synthesized and directly compared with its ammonium analog in terms of siRNA delivery. The triethylphosphonium polymer shows transfection efficiency up to 65% with 100% cell viability, whereas the best result obtained for the ammonium analog reaches only 25% transfection with 85% cell viability. Moreover, the nature of the alkyl substituents on the phosphonium cations is shown to have an important influence on the transfection efficiency and toxicity of the polyplexes. The present results show that the use of positively charged phosphonium groups is a worthy choice to achieve a good balance between toxicity and transfection efficiency in gene delivery systems. © 2012 American Chemical Society.
Sponsors
This project has been funded in part with Federal funds from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN268201000043C, and in part through the Frechet "various donors" fund for the support of research in new materials. We thank Ann Fischer and Michelle Yasukawa for help with cell culture and Dr. Peter Friebe and Dr. Eva Harris for assistance with and the use of their luminescence plate reader. P.R.W. gratefully acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) for partial funding.
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Journal
Journal of the American Chemical Society
ISSN
00027863
DOI
10.1021/ja207366k
PubMed ID
22239619
Handle URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/562078
Collections
Articles; Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Division; Chemical Science Program