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Gene-therapy Inspired Polycation Coating for Protection of DNA Origami Nanostructures
Published on: January 19, 2019
Tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin-grafted chitosan fluorescent biopolymer: Synthesis, characterization, high DNA
Santosh Kumar1, Ira Singh1, Pankaj Garg2
1Functional Polymer Materials Lab, Department of Chemistry, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur 208002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Abstract:
Cationic polymer-based gene delivery vectors face several challenges, including low DNA loading capacity, rapid renal clearance, high toxicity due to non-degradability, and poor transfection efficiency. Chitosan offers a promising alternative due to its inherent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low immunogenicity, but its limited solubility and moderate gene delivery efficiency restrict broader application. To address these challenges, we developed a water-soluble porphyrin-grafted chitosan (PGC) biomaterial by covalently conjugating tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) to the amino groups of chitosan, creating a multifunctional fluorescent biopolymer. Its structural and morphological properties have been characterized by UV-vis, FT-IR, 1H NMR, AFM, FE-SEM analysis. The PGC biopolymer exhibited a degree of substitution of 7.5% as determined by 1H NMR. When excited at 433 nm, the PGC biopolymer showed fluorescence emission at 680 nm. It effectively loads DNA and enables enhanced gene delivery efficiency. Additionally, it demonstrated efficient cellular uptake, highlighting it as an efficient non-viral gene delivery carrier that could be useful in the delivery of cancer therapeutics.
