Combined use of polycationic peptide and biodegradable macromolecular polymer as a novel gene delivery system: a preliminary study.

Plasmid(p) DNA was condensed by polycationic peptide polylysine (PLL) to be a core and then encapsulated in biodegradable monomethoxy (polyethyleneglycol)-poly(lactide-co-glycolide)-monomethoxy (poly-ethylene glycol) (PELGE) to form core-shell nanoparticles as a novel gene delivery system PPD (PELGE-PLL-DNA). Nanoparticles formed from PPD had several complementary properties such as improved biocompatibility, decreased cytotoxicity, enhanced pDNA integrity, and the characteristic of lysosomal escape as PLGA nanoparticles. The results demonstrated the potential of this PPD as an efficient gene delivery system.