Temperature Sensitive PNIPAm-g-PEI/Gold Nanotriangle for Gene Delivery Promotion

As a two-dimensional material, gold nanotriangles (GNTs) are rarely studied in the field of gene delivery. In this study, a temperature-responsive GNTs was developed as a novel carrier for gene delivery. The temperature-sensitive copolymer PNIPAm-g-PEI was grafted onto the surface of GNTs to construct a PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs composite controllable release platform. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs was found to be 42 °C, and the particle size of PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs was 150 nm at this temperature. Gel electrophoresis experiments showed that PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs completely condensed DNA at 20 μg/mL, and PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs promoted the release of DNA under laser irradiation. Luciferase and green fluorescent protein reporter gene assays demonstrated that the transfection efficiency of PNIPAm-g-PEI/GNTs was 1.5 and 7.2 times that of PEI, respectively. These results demonstrated the promising potential of temperature-responsive GNTs as effective and safe gene delivery vectors.