New cationic polymers for DNA delivery with low toxicity

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The importance of nucleic acid delivery systems for state-of-the-art therapeutics can hardly be overstated. Thus, the development of novel, biocompatible and efficient delivery systems is highly important for improved medical treatments. Traditional synthetic cationic polymers employed for transfection (such as polyethyleneimines) show good transfection ability, but they most often exhibit high toxicity. The goal of this thesis project is the preparation of two types of new biomimetic cationic cyclopolymers with low toxicity. In both cases, a single precursor can be used to readily generate chemically and structurally diverse polymer derivatives. Furthermore, these polymers will be prepared in a topologically and enantiomerically controlled fashion, which allows for further tuning of their properties. We will develop these functional polymers as novel nucleic acid carriers in the form of polyplexes, polyplex micelles and polymersomes. All the new polymers will then be evaluated for cellular compatibility, cellular uptake and gene expression in various models of prostate cancer cells.