Charge inversion in DNA-amphiphile complexes: Possible application to gene therapy

Abstract

We study a complex formation between the DNA and cationic amphiphilic molecules. As the amphiphile is added to the solution containing DNA, a cooperative binding of surfactants to the DNA molecules is found. This binding transition occurs at specific density of amphiphile, which is strongly dependent on the concentration of the salt and on the hydrophobicity of the surfactant molecules. We find that for amphiphiles which are sufficiently hydrophobic, a charge neutralization, or even charge inversion of the complex is possible. This is of particular importance in applications to gene therapy, for which the functional delivery of specific base sequence into living cells remains an outstanding problem. The charge inversion could, in principle, allow the DNA-surfactant complexes to approach negatively charged cell membranes permitting the transfection to take place.

Latex, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• What happened to the gas-liquid transition in the system of dipolar hard spheres?
• Complexation of DNA with Cationic Surfactant

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Electrostatic correlations: from Plasma to Biology
• Effective interactions between like-charged macromolecules
• Adsorption of mono- and multivalent cat- and anions on DNA molecules
• Kinetics of charge inversion
• Counterions and water molecules in charged silicon nanochannels: the influence of surface charge discreteness
• Amphiphile Adsorption on Rigid Polyelectrolytes
• Micellization in the presence of polyelectrolyte