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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Assembly and Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles
Published on: March 2, 2020
Micelles of lipid-oligonucleotide conjugates: implications for membrane anchoring and base pairing
C Gosse1, A Boutorine, I Aujard
1Laboratoire de Physique Statistique CNRS UMR 8550, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France, Département de Chimie CNRS UMR 8640, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France, Laboratoire de Biophysique CNRS/MNHN UMR 5153, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France, and Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie CNRS UMR 168, Institut Curie, 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Abstract:
This report examines the organization properties of new fluorescent DNA-lipids, either alone in water or in interaction with 1-octyl-beta-d-glucopyranoside micelles or egg phosphatidylcholine vesicles. We first describe the design and the syntheses of the conjugates. Then, we use UV-Vis absorption, steady-state fluorescence emission, electron microscopy, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy after two-photon excitation to show that these DNA-lipids form spherical micelles in aqueous solution and incorporate much better in micelles than in vesicles. We also investigate the significance of the lipophilic chains of these DNA-lipids on the melting behavior of the double-stranded hybrids: in water melting curves are broadened whereas in amphiphilic assemblies duplexes melt as the unconjugated controls. This work is expected to be useful for improving the rational design of antisense medicines.
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