Polyethylenimine dendrimer-grafted-dexamethasone as a nucleus targeting water-soluble lipopolymer gene carrier

Abstract

In this study the glucocorticoid steroid dexamethasone was conjuaged to 2 kD polyethyleneimine (PEI) dendrimer and the effect of conjugation to the gene delivery efficiency of the polymer was investigated. The PEI-dexamethasone (PEI-Dexa0 was synthesized by the one-step reaction method using the Traut`s reagent. The complex composed of PEI-Dexa/DNA showed increaed gene delivery potency compared to native PEI dendrimer and PEI. When delivered by PEI-Dexa, especially in the presence of serum during the transfection step, the transgene expression level increased by one order of magnitude compared to that of native PEI. These results indicate that the utility of PEI-Dexa as a therapeutic gene delivery system through nuclear receptor-targeted ligand transport mechanism.