Silica Modified Chitosan/Polyethylenimine Nanogel for Improved Stability and Gene Carrier Ability

Although chitosan-based hydrogel has been widely used as a gene carrier material, further improvement in this aspect is still needed. Herein a new method was proposed for preparing the effective chitosan-based gene carrier nanogel. The new method based on the fact that supra-molecular interactions between silica, polyethylenimine (PEI) and chitosan could be used to self-assemble them together to form a rigid and stable gene carrier material in the reverse microemulsion system. When compared with chemical cross-linking route, the proposed method is simple and easy to adjust components of the resulting nanogel and, therefore, can improve its gene carrying ability. Our results showed that, doping of the PEI and silica into the chitosan hydrogel obviously increased its strength, stability and gene carrying ability.