The success of protocols of clinical genetic therapy depends on the presence of effective and safe vectorsviral [1][2][3] or nonviral [3][4][5][6]. Since nonviral vectors usually transfer genes much less effectively than viral vectors, the search for new effective nonviral vectors remains a topical problem [3,4,6]. The appearance of such vectors may increase the effectiveness of treating monogenic hereditary diseases and other pathologies by the methods of genetic and genetic-cellular therapy.This work is devoted to the study by physicochemical and cytological methods of the properties of lipoplexes-complexes between DNA and oligo(ethylene propylene imines), a novel group of lipid-like substances containing one, two, or three cholesterol molecules (cholenim I, II, and III, respectively), which were synthesized earlier [7,8], and the use of them for the transfer of functional genes into eukaryotic cells in vitro and in vivo. Lipoplexes based on these substances proved to be more suitable for targeted gene delivery than the ancestor of this class of transfection mediators-polyethylene imine [9, 10].It was shown that the effectiveness of transfection of monolayer cultures of eukaryotic cells in vivo with lipoplexes I, II, and III increases with an increase in the positive charge of particles and stability of lipoplexes and decrease in the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity ratio of lipid, as well as depends on the size of particles and value of critical micelle concentration (CMC) of complexes. It was found that the distribution of lipoplexes injected into the hepatic portal vein of the mouse depends on cholenim structure.
EXPERIMENTALAll reagents used in this study were of reagent grade. Organic solvents were distilled before use. Cholenims were synthesized as described earlier [7]. Cholenim I is tris-[2-N -(3-aminopropyl)aminoethyl]amine monocholesteroylformiate; cholenim II, tris-[2-N -(3-aminopropyl)aminoethyl]amine dicholesteroylformiate; and cholenim III, tris-[2-N -(3-aminopropyl)aminoethyl]amine tricholesteroylformiate.In the study, we used salmon roe genomic DNA (1.7 × 10 4 kDa) fragmented by mild sonication to duplexes with an average size of 4 kb. After dialyzing aqueous DNA solution (1.5 mg/ml) against 10 mM NaCl and 1 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.2), its concentration was determined spectrophotometrically ( λ = 260 nm) using the molar extinction coefficient ε = 6600 M -1 cm -1 [11]. Melting temperature of DNA duplexes in buffer solution was 72°ë at a hyperchromic effect of 40%, indicating that the two-helix native structure of the duplexes was retained during sonication of genomic DNA. Melting curves of the complexes between genomic DNA fragments and cholenims were recorded on aVS4-2P spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 260 nm; the accuracy of measurements of temperature was ± 0.5 K . Pyrene fluorescence spectra [12] were recorded on an MPF-44B Perkin-Elmer spectrofluorometer. Circular dichroism spectra of the lipoplexes containing the pCMV-SPORT-β -G ‡l plasmid (BioLifeTech, catalogue no. 10586-04) and cholenims were...