Tuning DLVO Interactions Alters Polymer-Mediated pDNA Delivery in a Cell Type-Dependent Manner.

ABSTRACT: Polycations bind, protect, and deliver nucleic acid payloads, such as plasmids (pDNA), mRNA, and genome editor proteins, overcoming steep intracellular gene delivery barriers. The size of polycation-pDNA complexes (termed polyplexes) governs transgene expression, cell viability, and cellular internalization pathways. However, researchers struggle to decouple the effect of polyplex size from polycation composition. Here, we map the polyplex size preferences of diverse cell types by applying colloidal science principles to realize differentially sized, yet compositionally equivalent polyplexes. We generated polyplexes ranging from nanometric to micrometric sizes (hydrodynamic radii of 40, 85, 136, 213, 349, 719, and 827 nm) merely by tuning interpolyplex interaction potentials. Derjaguin-Lan

SUBMITTER: Sekar RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12721714 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature