Abstract
Amphiphilic copolymers have a wide variety of medical and biotechnological applications, including DNA transfection in eukaryotic cells. Still, no polymer-primed transfection of prokaryotic cells has been described. The reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymer synthesis technique and the reversible deactivation radical polymerization variants allow the design of polymers with well-controlled molar mass, morphology, and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity ratios. RAFT was used to synthesize two amphiphilic copolymers containing different ratios of the amphiphilic poly[2-(dimethyl-amino) ethyl methacrylate] and the hydrophobic poly [methyl methacrylate]. These copolymers bound to pUC-19 DNA and successfully transfected non-competent Escherichia coli DH5α, with transformation efficiency in the range of 103 colony-forming units per µg of plasmid DNA. These results demonstrate prokaryote transformation using polymers with controlled amphiphilic/hydrophobic ratios.
Highlights
Amphiphilic copolymers self-assemble in water, forming various aggregates that exhibit a wide variety of technological applications [1,2]
poly [DMAEMA] (PDMAEMA) homopolymers bind to DNA [28,29], PDMAEMA-mediated DNA transfer to bacterial cells has not been reported
To test whether increasing hydrophobicity could raise the ability of the polymer to mediate DNA transfer into bacterial cells, we designed amphipathic copolymers of different sizes and compositions
Summary
Amphiphilic copolymers self-assemble in water, forming various aggregates that exhibit a wide variety of technological applications [1,2]. Amphiphilic cationic copolymers bind to DNA, facilitating eukaryotic cell transformation, thereby constituting an alternative to viral DNA/RNA vectors [9,10]. Cationic polymers synthesized from 2(dimethyl-amino) ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) with different morphologies facilitate DNA delivery to eukaryotic cells but are cytotoxic [11,12,13]. Polymers consisting of PDMAEMA and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) obtained via FRP or RAFT bind DNA and efficiently promoted plasmid DNA transfer into Escherichia coli. These observations pave the way towards developing new synthetic materials based on PDMAEMAco-PMMA copolymers, with optimized properties to carry DNA into eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells (Figure 1)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
