Low molecular weight PEI-based biodegradable lipopolymers as gene delivery vectors

Non-viral gene vectors play an important role in the development of gene therapy. In this report, different hydrophobic chains were introduced into low molecular weight (LMW) PEI-based biodegradable oligomers to form a series of lipopolymers (LPs), and their structure–activity relationships were studied. Results revealed that the nine polymers can condense plasmid DNA well to form nanoparticles with appropriate sizes (120–250 nm) and positive zeta-potentials (+25–40 V). In vitro experiments were carried out and it was found that LP2 showed much higher transfection efficiency both in the presence and in the absence of serum under the polymer/DNA weight ratio of 0.8 in A549 cells.