Development of nanomaterials form inverted hexagonal self-assembled amphiphilic chitosan for the delivery of plasmid DNA

Novel amphiphilic chitosan derivatives containing double hydrophobic fatty acid tails and amine hydrophilic heads as a new hybrid of high MW biocompatible chitosan and fusogenic phospholipid-liked entity will be synthesized. The hydrophobic modification will be performed with double chains of either hexanoic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, or oleic acid. The hydrophilic modification will be carried out with quaternary ammonium groups or spermine.  These amphiphilic chitosan derivatives designed to possess a smaller size of hydrophilic head group and the larger size of hydrophobic tail will be investigated for their ability to  assembled in an inverted hexagonal phase (H_II), that is of important for gene carrier property. Moreover, the potential of amphiphilic chitosan derivative combined with other adjuvants such as phospholipid, PEG, cholesterol will be explored to enhance delivery performance.