Comb-Like Amphiphilic Polycarbonates with Different Lengths of Cationic Branches for Enhanced siRNA Delivery

Owing to the biodegradability and good biocompatibility polycarbonates show the versatile class of applications in biomedical fields. While their poor functional ability seriously limited the development of functional polycarbonates. Herein, a new Br-containing cyclic carbonate (MTC-Br) and a polycarbonate atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) macro-initiator (PEG-PMTC-Br) is synthesized. Then, by initiating the side-chain ATRP of 2-(dimethyl amino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) on PEG-PMTC-Br, a series of comb-like amphiphilic cationic polycarbonates, PEG-b-(PMTC-g-PDMAEMA) (GMDMs), with different lengths of cationic branches are successfully prepared. All these poly(ethylene glycol)-b-(poly((5-methyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxane-5-yl) methyl 2-bromo-2-methylpropanoate/1,3-dioxane-2-one)-g-poly(2-dimethyl aminoethyl methacrylate) (GMDMs) self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) (≈180 nm, +40 mV) can well bind siRNA to form GMDM/siRNA NPs. The gene silence efficiency of GMDM/siRNA high to 80%, which is even higher than the commercial transfection reagent lipo2000 (76%). But GMDM/siRNA shows lower cell uptake than lipo2000. So, the high gene silence ability of GMDM/siRNA NPs can be attributed to the strong intracellular siRNA trafficking capacity. Therefore, GMDM NPs are potential siRNA vectors and the successful preparation of comb-like polycarbonates also provides a facile way for diverse side-chain functional polycarbonates, expanding the application of polycarbonates.