Skip Main Navigation Links Jump to Footer
Journal of Materials Chemistry BVolume 5, Issue 25, 2017, Pages 4901-4917

Biodegradable PEG-dendritic block copolymers: Synthesis and biofunctionality assessment as vectors of siRNA(Article)

  • Leiro, V.,
  • Garcia, J.P.,
  • Moreno, P.M.D.,
  • Spencer, A.P.,
  • Fernandez-Villamarin, M.,
  • Riguera, R.,
  • Fernandez-Megia, E.,
  • Paula Pêgo, A.
  • View Correspondence (jump link)
  • ai3S-Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade Do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 208, Porto, 4200-135, Portugal
  • bINEB-Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade Do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 208, Porto, 4200-135, Portugal
  • cFaculdade de Engenharia da Universidade Do Porto (FEUP), Universidade Do Porto, Porto, Portugal
  • dFaculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
  • eCentro Singular de Investigación en Química Biolóxica e Materiais Moleculares, Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Jenaro de la Fuente s/n, Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Spain
  • fInstituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade Do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Abstract

One important drawback of most of the currently used dendrimers for biomedical applications is their high stability under physiological conditions that can result in cytotoxicity or complications induced by the accumulation of non-degradable synthetic materials in the organism. Particularly in the gene therapy field, vector stability can further hinder the intracellular release of the nucleic acid from the dendriplex, consequently leading to low transfection efficiencies. Therefore, biodegradable cationic dendritic structures have been eagerly awaited. However, the development of these dendritic nanocarriers is challenging because of the undesired and/or premature degradation observed during their synthesis and/or application. Here, we report new hybrid-biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, and water-soluble azide-terminated PEG-GATGE dendritic block copolymers, based on a gallic acid (GA) core and triethylene glycol (TG) butanoate arms, incorporating ester bonds (E) at the dendritic arms/shell. Their successful functionalization by "click" chemistry with unprotected alkynated amines allowed complexation and delivery of siRNA. The hydrophobic character of the GATGE building unit confers to these hydrolyzable dendritic bionanomaterials a great ability to complex, protect and mediate the cellular internalization of siRNA. Moreover, the localization of the degradation points at the dendritic periphery, close to the complexed siRNA, was found to be important for nucleic acid release from the nanoparticles, rendering a significant improvement of the transfection efficiency compared to their hydrolytically stable PEG-GATG copolymer counterparts. The present study puts forward these biodegradable PEG-dendritic block copolymers not only as suitable vectors for nucleic acids, but also as new avenues for further developments exploring their use in theranostics. © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Indexed keywords

Engineering controlled terms:BiocompatibilityBiomoleculesBlock copolymersEfficiencyFunctional polymersGene therapyMedical applicationsNucleic acidsPolyethylene oxides
Engineering uncontrolled termsBiomedical applicationsCellular internalizationDendritic peripheryDendritic structuresHydrophobic characterPhysiological conditionSynthetic materialsTransfection efficiency
Engineering main heading:Polyethylene glycols
  • ISSN: 20507518
  • CODEN: JMCBD
  • Source Type: Journal
  • Original language: English
  • DOI: 10.1039/c7tb00279c
  • Document Type: Article
  • Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

  Leiro, V.; i3S-Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade Do Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen, 208, Porto, Portugal;
© Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Cited by 7 documents

Wang, J.-Z. , You, M.-L. , Ding, Z.-Q.
A review of emerging bone tissue engineering via PEG conjugated biodegradable amphiphilic copolymers
(2019) Materials Science and Engineering C
Huang, W. , Wang, X. , Wang, C.
Structural exploration of hydrophobic core in polycationic micelles for improving siRNA delivery efficiency and cell viability
(2019) Journal of Materials Chemistry B
Santos, S.D. , Xavier, M. , Leite, D.M.
PAMAM dendrimers: blood-brain barrier transport and neuronal uptake after focal brain ischemia
(2018) Journal of Controlled Release
View details of all 7 citations
{"topic":{"name":"Dendrimers; Drug delivery; Gene delivery","id":903,"uri":"Topic/903","prominencePercentile":98.78508,"prominencePercentileString":"98.785","overallScholarlyOutput":0},"dig":"c23ff3b584c28a30b3dcb8be025c432bc17ab387df8a9f2791af223e31fa681e"}

SciVal Topic Prominence

Topic:
Prominence percentile: