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Fluorocarbon Modified Low-Molecular-Weight Polyethylenimine for siRNA Delivery
Mark E Johnson1, Judy Shon1, Brian M Guan1
1Department of Chemistry, University of California , Irvine, California 92697, United States.
Abstract:
We report the synthesis and study of fluorocarbon (FC) modified polyethylenimine (PEI) for the purpose of siRNA delivery. Low-molecular-weight PEI (Mn = 600) was functionalized with fluorocarbon epoxides of varying length. All FC-modified samples with greater than 2.0 equiv of FC epoxide per PEI induced potent gene silencing in vitro. Compared to hydrocarbon (HC) analogues, the FC vectors showed greater general silencing efficacy, higher cell uptake, and reduced association with serum components. Collectively, the data suggest that modification of polyamines with FCs is a promising approach for the discovery of novel vectors for siRNA delivery.
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