Biodegradable gadolinium-chelated cationic poly(urethane amide) copolymers for gene transfection and magnetic resonance imaging

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Theranostic nano-polyplexes containing gene and imaging agents hold a great promise for tumor diagnosis and therapy. In this work, we develop a group of new gadolinium (Gd)-chelated cationic poly(urethane amide)s for gene delivery and T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Cationic poly(urethane amide)s (denoted as CPUAs) having multiple disulfide bonds, urethane and amide linkages were synthesized by stepwise polycondensation reaction between 1,4-bis(3-aminopropyl)piperazine and a mixture of di(4-nitrophenyl)-2, 2′-dithiodiethanocarbonate (DTDE-PNC) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) dianhydride at varied molar ratios. Then, Gd-chelated CPUAs (denoted as GdCPUAs) were produced by chelating Gd(III) ions with DTPA residues of CPUAs. These GdCPUAs could condense gene into nanosized and positively-charged polyplexes in a physiological condition and, however, liberated gene in an intracellular reductive environment. In vitro transfection experiments revealed that the GdCPUA at a DTDE-PNC/DTPA residue molar ratio of 85/15 induced the highest transfection efficiency in different cancer cells. This efficiency was higher than that yielded with 25kDa branched polyethylenimine as a positive control. GdCPUAs and their polyplexes exhibited low cytotoxicity when an optimal transfection activity was detected. Moreover, GdCPUAs may serve as contrast agents for T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. The results of this work indicate that biodegradable Gd-chelated cationic poly(urethane amide) copolymers have high potential for tumor theranostics.