Synthesis of poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) nanogels in reverse micelles for delivery of plasmid DNA and small interfering RNAs into living cells

Hydrogel nanoparticles of poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) with hydrodynamic radii of 40-50 nm are synthesized via the copolymerization of a water-soluble monomer and N,N'-methylenebis(acrylamide) in a solution of Brij-97 reverse micelles in cyclohexane. All amino groups of nanoparticles are protonated in a weakly acidic solution; however, almost one-third of them remain inaccessible to a flexible polystyrenesulfonate polyanion, while almost two-thirds of them remain inaccessible to rigid double-helical DNA. Complexes of nanogels with plasmid DNA carrying the firefly luciferase gene transfect eukaryotic cells in a cultural medium, and the products of interaction of nanogels with small interfering RNAs suppress expression of the marker enzyme. In both systems, the replacement of linear polyamine with nanogel significantly increases the efficiency of delivery. The activity of nanogels in transfection experiments depends in an extremum pattern on the crosslink degree and achieves a maximum value at a crosslinking-agent concentration of 5 mol %. The results of this study suggest that the developed procedure offers promise for the synthesis of cationic nanogels as vectors for delivery of genetic material into living cells.