A star-shaped porphyrin-arginine functionalized poly(L-lysine) copolymer for photo-enhanced drug and gene co-delivery.

The co-delivery of drug and gene has become the primary strategy in cancer and other disease therapy. To co-deliver hydrophobic drug and functional gene efficiently into tumor cells, a star-shaped copolymer (PP-PLLD-Arg) with a photochemical internalization effect consisting of a porphyrin (PP) core and arginine-functionalized poly(L-lysine) dendron (PLLD-Arg) arms has been designed, and used to co-deliver docetaxel (DOC) and MMP-9 shRNA plasmid for nasopharyngeal cancer therapy. It was found that PP-PLLD-Arg/MMP-9 nanocomplex showed the photo-enhanced gene transfection efficiency in vitro, and could mediate a significant reduce of MMP-9 protein expression in HNE-1 cells.

Photoenhanced gene transfection by a star-shaped polymer consisting of a porphyrin core and poly(L-lysine) dendron arms.

A star-shaped polymer (PP-PLLD) consisting of a porphyrin (PP) core and poly(L-lysine) dendron arms (PLLD) is synthesized by the click reaction, and its ability to deliver pEGFP is investigated in this paper. It is found that PP-PLLD has a good buffer capacity and can form compact complexes with pEGFP. In vitro assay indicates that PP-PLLD shows photoenhanced gene transfection efficiency.