Abstract
In order to engineer non-viral drug delivery systems like lipoplexes or artificial viruses exhibiting the advantages of natural viruses like high transfection efficiency but without toxicity, first coupling of DNA to lipid bilayers has to be understood. The adsorption of negatively charged DNA to a zwitterionic DMPE (1,2-dimyristoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine) monolayer was investigated in presence and absence of divalent magnesium ions. The presence of adsorbed DNA was verified by IRRAS (infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy) as well as GIXD (grazing incidence X-ray diffraction) experiments. IRRAS shows the typical bands of DNA only in the presence of magnesium ions. Obviously, magnesium ions turn a DMPE monolayer cationic. Additionally, the adsorption of DNA occurs in an ordered way and leads to the appearance of an additional Bragg peak. The spacing between adsorbed DNA strands changes only slightly on compression. The area per charge calculated from GIXD measurements shows that two DMPE molecules are connected with one DNA phosphate.
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