Polyurethane dispersion containing quaternized ammonium groups: An efficient nanosize gene delivery carrier for A549 cancer cell line transfection

• QPU showed lower cytotoxicity than Polyfect in human normal and cancer cells.
• QPU can condense plasmid DNA and protect it from nuclease degradation.
• The transfection efficiency by QPU was higher than Polyfect® in the A549 cancerous cells.
• The cell transfection by Polyfect® was higher than QPU in the KDR normal cells.

A novel polyurethane containing cationic ammonium groups (QPU) was synthesized and used as vector for gene therapy and cancer gene targeting. The synthesized QPU was characterized by Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy methods. An agarose gel retardation electrophoresis assay was conducted to verify the complete complex formation between QPU and pDNA. The particles size and zeta potential of neat polymers, plasmid DNA, polymers/DNA polyplexes were determined by the dynamic light scattering technique. The polyplexes cytotoxicity was determined using [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay and its transfection efficiency was examined qualitatively by fluorescent microscopy and quantitatively by flow cytometery methods. The gel retardation assay, particle size and zeta potential measurements were confirmed that the synthesized cationic polymer could condense DNA efficiently in the physiologic condition. QPU polyplexes showed a significantly lower cytotoxicity compared to Polyfect® polyplexes in the examined human cancerous (A549) or normal cells (KDR). Based on our findings, the transfection efficiency by QPU was 2.2 fold higher than Polyfect® in the A549 cells whereas in the KDR cells, the cell transfection by Polyfect® was 18.1 fold higher than QPU. Due to low cytotoxicity for normal cells and high transfection efficiency in cancer cells, the potential applicability of designed QPU as a non-viral gene carrier for targeting of cancer gene therapy was confirmed.