| Grant number: | 14/22983-9 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | May 01, 2015 |
| End date: | April 30, 2017 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry |
| Principal Investigator: | Fernando Carlos Giacomelli |
| Grantee: | Fernando Carlos Giacomelli |
| Host Institution: | Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Santo André , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | Santo André |
Abstract
The investigations will be focused on the use of "Colloids in Nanomedicine". Initially, it will be explored the manufacturing of macromolecular nanostructures via the complexation of DNA with the cationic block copolymers PEO113-b-PDEAEMA50, PEO113-b-PDPA50, PEOGMA113-b-PDAMA50 and POEGMA-b-P(OEGMA-r-DEAEMA-r-DPAEMA)50. Polyplexes based on cationic block copolymers have potential application in intracellular gene delivery. The polymer/DNA complexation will be investigated by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The combination of both techniques will allow the determination of structural features of the assemblies as well as thermodynamic parameters of polymer/DNA binding. Possible conformational changes in the secondary structure of the DNA chain due to the complexation will be evaluated in parallel by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The physicochemical aspects of the supramolecular polymer systems will be probed by scattering techniques: SDLS - static dynamic light scattering, ELS - electrophoretic light scattering and SAXS - small-angle X-ray scattering besides atomic force microscopy (AFM). Selected supramolecular nanostructures will be further evaluated regarding cellular uptake through flow cytometry and confocal fluorescence microscopy using YOYO-1 labelled DNA. The transfection efficiency will be evaluated by using pEGFP-N1 plasmid encoding a red-shifted variant of wild-type green fluorescence protein (GFP). NIH 3T3 fibroblasts cell line will be employed as cell culture in all biological evaluations. (AU)
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