The synthesis and characterisation of a novel dendritic system for gene delivery

There has been increasing interest in recent years in gene delivery. We report the synthesis of non-viral delivery systems composed of variations of the cell penetrating peptide TAT, a nuclear localisation signal peptide and dendritic polylysine. The delivery systems were tested for their ability to form complexes with plasmid DNA by utilising gel shift analysis, isothermal titration calorimetry, particle size analysis, zeta potential and transmission electron microscopy. These techniques indicated the successful formation of complexes between the peptide dendrimer and DNA.