Polycationic toxicity

Polycationic polymers. These are macromolecules that have electropositive groups attached to the polymer chain or pendant to the chain. These materials are active against a number of bacteria and fungi. However, due to their inherent toxicity to animal species through their destructive interaction with cell membranes they are... 

Toxicity is most likely in tissues that interact with the drug. For example, gentamicin is polycationic and binds to anionic phospholipids in the cell membranes of renal proximal tubular cells, where it inhibits phospholipases and damages intracellular organelles. 

The main part of the works relating to the determination of BAs in wines concern the major ones, such as His and Tyr few studies have been performed on amines such as Spd and Spm. These amines, even though they appear less toxic than His and Tyr (115,116), nevertheless exert many functions at the cellular level. For instance, by their polycationic long-chain structure they can interact with DNA, RNA, proteins, and the membrane phospholipides (117,118), and they are also strongly implied in cellular growth phenomena. The presence of these polyamines in grapes and the role that they play have been studied for some years (119). 

Chitosan, a biocompatible and biodegradable polycationic polymer with low toxicity, is known for its swelling ability and permeation-enhancing properties and represents a polymer of choice for the preparation of microspheres intended for nasal administration [74],... 

Methods to stabilize, enhance cellular uptake, and alter the in vivo pharmacokinetic properties of poly rI poly rC were extensively studied. Polycationic substances such as DEAE-dextran (diethylyaminoethyl dextran), poly L-ly sine, and histones were shown to complex with poly rLpoly rC and other polynucleotides and alter all of these properties (7). Poly rLpoly rC, complexed with polylysine in the presence of carboxymethylcellulose, was studied in patients with cancer and found to be very toxic (12,13). 

The pyrrolidone side chain is known to be nontoxic e.g. in poly(vinyl pyrrol idone). Incorporation of the dimethylamino-moiety leads to zwitterionic structures such structures are known to lower the toxicity of the polycationic poly(ethyleneimine) (12). 

Chitosan, due to its polycationic nature, is gaining enormous attention for its unique properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility with animal and plant tissues, non-toxic nature, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-acid, anti-ulcer, non-toxic, non-allergenic, etc., as well as film formation, fiber formation, bead formation, hydrogel formation, etc. By virtue of these properties, chitosan has prospective applications in many fields such as medical, water treatment, cosmetics, dentifrices, food, and textile industries. In textiles, it can be used in the primary production of fibers, textile auxiliary chemicals and finishing agents [1,4-6]. 

Chitosan is a versatile polycationic biopolymer derived from alkaline deacetylation of chitin. It exhibits several valuable inherent properties such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antacidity, chelation, non-toxicity, and biodegradability as well as properties such as film formation. Further, due to its possession of hydroxyl and amino functional groups, chitosan can be fabricated to tailor... 

Poly(amidoamine)s (PAAs) can be easily synthesized by Michael-type polyaddition of primary or bis-secondary amines to give bis(aciylamide)s. These polymers are water soluble, biodegradable and biocompatible, and show significantly lower cytotoxicity than other usual polycationic vectors (>100-fold less toxic than PAAs have the advantage of degrading to... 

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