Low molecular weight PEI-based biodegradable lipopolymers as gene delivery vectors.

Non-viral gene vectors play an important role in the development of gene therapy. In this report, different hydrophobic chains were introduced into low molecular weight (LMW) PEI-based biodegradable oligomers to form a series of lipopolymers (LPs), and their structure-activity relationships were studied. Results revealed that the nine polymers can condense plasmid DNA well to form nanoparticles with appropriate sizes (120-250 nm) and positive zeta-potentials (+25-40 V). In vitro experiments were carried out and it was found that LP2 showed much higher transfection efficiency both in the presence and in the absence of serum under the polymer/DNA weight ratio of 0.8 in A549 cells.