Novel Cationic Triblock Copolymer of Poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate]-block-poly(β-amino ester)-block-poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate]: A Promising Non-Viral Gene Delivery System

This manuscript reports the synthesis of a new cationic block copolymer based on poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] and poly(beta-amino ester) from different polymerization strategies. For the first time, it is proposed a triblock copolymer based only on cationic segments, aiming a high biocompatibility, enhanced buffering capacity and stimuli-responsive character in a single structure. The new block copolymer successfully condensed the plasmid DNA into nanosized polyplexes. The polyplexes were tested in two different cell lines revealing similar to 4-fold and similar to 6-fold (in HeLa cells), and similar to 11-fold (in COS-7 cells) higher transgene expression than branched PEI and TurboFect (TM), respectively. These results show that this new block copolymer is a promising candidate to be used as a polymeric non-viral vector.