Biophysical and structural studies of self-assembled liposome/E-peptide/DNA nanoparticles : correlation with gene delivery

• Main Author: Yan, Jiang
• Other Authors: Lars Nordenskiold
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Genetics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/50471
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Recently, novel DNA compaction agents, ε-oligo(L-lysines) and their branched α-amino-acid substituted derivatives, have been successfully tested as vectors for in vitro gene delivery. The present work exploits a number of newly developed ε-oligolysine-based peptides: ε-(LYRH)K10, ε-(LYH)K10, ε-(LYK)K10, ε-(LKY)K10 and ε-(YKL)K10. ε-oligolysine backbone was synthesized with degree of polymerization 10 and α-amino acid triplets (amino acids in the brackets) were attached to each of the α-amino group of ε-oligolysine (Fig. 1). Since it was found that combined effect of lipids and polycations can greatly enhance transfection efficiency, our novel ε-peptides were used in the combination of cationic liposome DOTAP (1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane), resulting in a ternary complex liposome/ε-peptides/DNA (LPD).