Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(glycidyl methacrylate) with oligoamine side chains as efficient gene vectors

Well-defined diblock copolymers, poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(glycidyl methacrylate)s (PEG-b-PGMAs), with different poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) chains, were prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from the same macromolecular initiator 2-bromoisobutyryl-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). Ethyldiamine (EDA), diethylenetriamine (DETA), triethylenetetramine (TETA), and polyethyleneimine (PEI) with an M(W) of 400 (PEI(400)) were used to decorate PEG-b-PGMAs to get the cationic polymers PEG-b-PGMA- oligoamines. These cationic polymers possessed high buffer capability and could condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) into nanoscaled complexes of 125-530 nm. These complexes showed the positive zeta potential of 20-35 mV at N/P ratios of 10-50. Most of them exhibited very low cytotoxicity and good transfection efficiency in 293T cells. The presence of the serum medium did not decrease the transfection efficiency due to the steric stabilization of the PEG chains.