Polyethyleneimine-lipid conjugate-based pH-sensitive micellar carrier for gene delivery.

A low molecular weight polyethyleneimine (PEI 1.8 kDa) was modified with dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to form the PEI-PE conjugate investigated as a transfection vector. The optimized PEI-PE/pDNA complexes at an N/P ratio of 16 had a particle size of 225 nm, a surface charge of +31 mV, and protected the pDNA from the action of DNase I.