Abstract :
Polymer based non-viral gene delivery systems depend on the electrostatic interaction between cationic polymers
and nucleic acids which yields inter-polyelectrolyte complexes (ipec). Such behaviour of interaction between
polycations (cationic polymers) and polyanions (dna/sirna) can be well explained well by polyelectrolyte theory.
Further addition of polycations, portion of negatively charged n-pec decreases until over all concentration of
polycations and polyanions become equal and all dna/sirna charges are neutralized. Therefore when the portion of
the insoluble complex (s-pec) grows the phase separation of complex species takes place and complex solubility
decreases. High and low molecule chitosan were selected for this work. Physicochemical characterization of
polyplexes formed due to the interaction of high molecular weight (hmwc) and low molecular weight (lmwc)
chitosan with plasmid dna and sirna were performed. Gel retardation assay of polyplexes formed due to the
interaction of high molecular weight (hmwc) with plasmid dna were done. Gel retardation assay of polyplexes
formed due to the interaction of low molecular weight (lmwc) with plasmid dna were also performed. In (hmwc) gel
image lane 1 contains polymer only and lane 10 contains plasmid dna only as controls while lane 2-9 contains
complexes of polymer and dna with polymer to dna ratios of (0.25:1, 0.5:1, 0.75:1, 1.5:1, 3:1, 6:1, 8:1, and 10:1)
respectively. In (lmwc) gel image lane 1 contains polymer only and lane 10 contains plasmid dna only as controls
while lane 2-9 contains complexes of polymer and dna (w/w) with polymer to dna ratios of (0.25:1, 0.5:1, 0.75:1,
1.5:1, 3:1, 6:1, 8:1, and 10:1) respectively
Keyword :
Polymer based non-viral gene delivery systems depend on the electrostatic interaction between cationic polymers and nucleic acids which yields inter-polyelectrolyte complexes (ipec). Such behaviour of interaction between polycations (cationic polymers) an