THE POLY(ESTER AMINE)S FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC CARBON NANOTUBES AS EFFICIENT GENE VECTOR

Magnetic carbon nanotubes have been attracted great interest in biomedicine fields because of their unique structure and magnetic properties. A poly(ester amine)s functional magnetic CNT (CNTs/Fe3O4-HPEI) was prepared and used as gene carrier. The structure was confirmed by FTIR, XRD, TEM, and TGA. The poly(ester amine)s functional magnetic CNTs displayed typical superparamagnetic behavior. Plasmids can be bound by this poly(ester amine)s functional magnetic CNTs to form the nano complexes with positive charge. The gene transfection efficiency is related to the w/w ratio of CNTs/Fe3O4-HPEI and DNA. At the optimal w/w ratio of above 6, the poly(ester amine)s functional magnetic CNTs show a comparable transfection activity to 25k PEI, however the cytotoxicity is much lower. In addition, the gene transfection level can be improved in the magnetic field because of the increased cell internalization rate by magnetic force. These results suggest that the poly(ester amine)s functional magnetic CNTs would be a potential gene vector in targeted gene therapy.