Dextran-spermine

Fig. 1 (a) Synthesis of dextran-spermine conjugates, (b) Fluorescence micrographs of dextran-spermine compared to common transfection reagents in HEK293 and NIH3T3 cells. Adapted with permission from [38]. 2002 American Chemical Society... 

Azzam T, Eliyahu H, Makocitzki A et al (2003) Dextran-spermine conjugate an efficient vector for gene delivery. Macromol Symp 195 247-261... 

Hosseinkhani H, Azzam T, Tabata Y et al (2004) Dextran-spermine polycation an efficient nonviral vector for in vitro and in vivo gene transfection. Gene Ther 11 194-203... 

Eliyahu H, Joseph A, Schillemans JP et al (2007) Characterization and in vivo performance of dextran-spermine polyplexes and DOTAP/cholesterol lipoplexes administered locally and systemically. Biomaterials 28(14) 2339-2349... 

Eliyahu H, Joseph A, Azzam T et al (2006) Dextran-spermine-based polyplexes - evaluation of transgene expression and of local and systemic toxicity in mice. Biomaterials 27 (8) 1636-1645... 

Eliyahu FI, et al. (2005). Novel dextran-spermine conjugates as transfecting agents comparing water-soluble and micellar polymers. Gene Ther. 12 494-503. 

Dextran-spermine-based conjugates have been prepared via reductive amination between oxidised dextran and spermine [11]. Spermine, a naturally occurring linear polyamine, is involved in cellular metabolism and is a polycation at physiological pH. Dextran was initially oxidised with potassium periodate and the obtained dialdehyde derivative was then reacted under basic conditions with spermine. Dextran-spermine displayed particularly high transfection efficiency, which was attributed to the unique complexation properties between DNA and the grafted spermine moieties. Dextran-spermine and their derivatives have shown high transfection of p-DNA both in vitro and in vivo [12]. 

Dextran can be modified easily and cationic derivatives are obtained by reaction with diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) reagents or spermine. DEAE-dextran is one of the pioneer cationic polymers for gene delivery. However, PLL and other synthetic polymers have replaced dextran these days because of low transfection efficiency and toxicity problems of DEAE-dextran. Spermine-dextran (MW 9000-11 000 g mol ) is used as an siRNA delivery agent to cancer cells, with low toxicity and high loading capacity on HeLa-Zwc cells, and was proved to be a safe and effective acid-sensitive carrier for gene delivery by Cohen et al. Researchers showed that cationic dextran derivatives (MW 70 kDa) have also reverse tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) polarization, promote IL-12 expression in tumor TAMs and thereby enhance the tumoricidal capacity of TAMs. ... 

F. Abedini, H. Hosseinkhani, M. Ismail, Y.-R. Chen, A.R. Omar, P.P. Chong, A.J. Domb, In vitro intracellular trafficking of biodegradable nanoparticles of dextran-spermine in cancer cell lines, Int. J. Nanotechnol. 8 (2011) 712-723. 

T. Azzam, H. Eliyahu, A. Makovitzki, M. Linial, A.J. Domb, Hydrophobized dextran-spermine conjugate as potential vector for in vitro gene transfection, J. Control Release 96 (2004) 309-323. 

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