Publié le 20/08/2021 par Chan-Seng Delphine
Gene therapy aims at delivering a nucleic acid (DNA, siRNA, etc.) to treat diseases by silencing a defective gene or implementing a missing one. Cationic polymer (or polycations) have been used in this field as an alternative to viruses to carry the therapeutic gene to the diseased cells.
Recently, a collaboration between the PECMAT team at the ICS and the 3BIO team at the CAMB (UMR7199) has reported a strategy to insert hydrophobic spacing units on dodecalysines (polycations). These molecules have been evaluated for the transport of DNA to the nucleus of cancer cells (HCT116). The ability of these molecules in the presence of a lipid (DOPE) to transport and deliver DNA was increased by 10-fold as compared to the one with unmodified dodecalysine (K12). These results have been published in European Polymer Journal (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014305721003888).