Block copolymers toxicity tests

A series of star DHBCs were evaluated for their ability to transfect hmnan cervical HeLa cancer cells with the modified plasmid pRLSV40, bearing the enhanced green fluorescent protein as the reporter gene [55]. The copolymers utilized were composed of PDMAEMA and PHEGMA blocks (where PDMAEMA is an ionizable block, while PHEGMA is a non-ionic water soluble block). The experimental data indicate a decreased toxicity for the star copolymer, compared to a reference PDMAEMA star homopolymer, for the same amounts of star polymer tested. Moreover, it has been found that the architecture of the star copolymer, i.e. star block, miktoarm star etc, plays a decisive role on the transfection efficiency. The best performance, for all star copolymers tested, was observed for a star block copolymer with... 

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