Development of a new polymericDNA delivery system
Author
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-06-03
Pages
113
Abstract
Gene therapy is a promising strategy for curing diseases that have a genetic origin, but so far it has been limited due to the difficulties of delivering DNA to human cells. In this thesis, a new non-viral DNA delivery system has been created using the amphiphilic polymer PVP-OD and a short cationic peptide. Some properties of the new nanocarrier such as the size, the shape or the safety have bee studied, as well as its efficiency inducing foreign gene expression in human cells. Although the nanocarrier seems optimal for gene delivery, high levels of transfection has not yet been observed, suggesting that more work is necessary to optimize this new system. Considering the promise that the PVP-OD nanocarrier may have, and given the technical limitations that the 2D transfection experiments have, a COMSOL model has been created to aid in the future development of a microfluidic chip that could be used for testing this DNA delivery system in conditions that more closely resemble real humans.
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