[Synthesis and characterization of urocanic acid-coupled chitosan as gene vector]

A new nonviral gene vector--urocanic acid-coupled chitosan (UAC) was prepared by the reaction of the activated urocanic acid (UA) with the amine group on the chitosan (CTS). The structure of UAC was confirmed with FT-IR, 1H NMR and element analysis. The influencing factors of substitution values were studied by orthogonal test, and the substitution values of UAC increased with the prolongation of activating time of UA and the increasing ratio of UA to CTS. The condensation ability and the resistance to DNase I of UAC/pDNA were evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis, and UAC showed good condensation ability with pDNA, well protecting pDNA from the degradation by DNase I. The particle size and zeta potential were evaluated by zetasizer, and the results showed that the UAC/pDNA complex was well stable and could easily enter into cells. The transfection studies were performed with HepG2 cells in vitro. It showed that the in vitro transfection of UAC/pDNA was efficient in HepG2 cells and could express more green fluorescent proteins than that of CTS. So the UAC is easy to prepare and a promising non-viral gene vector.