siRNA Silencing by Chemically Modified Biopolymeric Nanovectors

The ability to specifically silence genes by RNA interference has an enormous potential for treating genetic diseases. However, different drawbacks such as short interfering RNA (siRNA) degradability by serum nucleases and biodistribution issues still need to be overcome to develop suitable delivery vehicles that have been proven essential in carrying siRNA to its target. Chitosan is an attractive biomaterial to construct gene nanocarriers as it is safe, cheap, and amenable to chemical modifications. However, the transfection efficiency of nanovectors based on unmodified chitosan has revealed to be relatively low and dependent on different factors such as the biopolymer molecular weight, deacetylation degree, charge ratio, pH, or particle size. Thus, specific strategies have been adopted to improve the transfection efficacy of chitosan-based nanovectors. In this work, hydrophobically modified chitosans with 8-, 10-, and 12-carbon side chains grafted to the polymeric backbone by a reductive amination proce...