关键词: 糖原, 聚甲基丙烯酸N, N-二甲氨基乙酯, 基因载体, 金粒子, CT成像

Abstract: Nowday, the gene vectors are limited in the field of biomedicine due to their high cytotoxicity and single functionality. Glycogen is an animal starch with branched chain composed of glucose and has good biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this work, a series of cationic gene vectors comprising glycogen backbones and poly(2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) side chains with different lengths (termed as Gly-co-PDs) were readily prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Gly-co-PDs could be further modified with gold nanoparticles which can be termed as Gly-co-PD-Au. The gene condensation ability, buffering ability and cytotoxicity of Gly-co-PDs and Gly-co-PD-Au carriers were investigated. Gly-co-PD-Au exhibits excellent gene delivery capacity, low cytotoxicity and CT imaging function. Such Gly-co-PD-Au vectors which could be utilized as a CT contrast agent for cancer cell imaging has potential application in real-time imaging for gene therapy.

Key words: gycogen, poly (2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate), gene carriers, gold nanoparticles, CT imaging