Covalent grafting of common trihydroxymethylaminomethane in the headgroup region imparts high serum compatibility and mouse lung transfection property to cationic amphiphile.

Clinical success of cationic transfection lipids in nonviral gene therapy continues to remain critically dependent on the use of serum compatible cationic amphiphiles efficient in delivering genes into our body cells. To this end, we demonstrate that covalent grafting of simple Tris-base component of the widely used biological Tris buffer in the headgroup region is capable of imparting high serum compatibility and intravenous mouse lung transfection properties to cationic amphiphile.