Ricerc@Sapienza

The self-assembling processes underlining the capabilities of facially differentiated ("Janus") polycationic amphiphilic cyclodextrins (paCDs) as non-viral gene nanocarriers have been investigated by a pluridisciplinary approach. Three representative Janus paCDs bearing a common tetradecahexanoyl multitail domain at the secondary face and differing in the topology of the cluster of amino groups at the primary side were selected for this study. All of them compact pEGFP-C3 plasmid DNA and promote transfection in HeLa and MCF-7 cells, both in absence and in presence of human serum.

More than 20 years after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), liposomal doxorubicin (DOX) is still the drug of choice for the treatment of breast cancer and other conditions such as ovarian cancer and multiple myeloma. Yet, despite the efforts, liposomal DOX did not satisfy expectations at the clinical level. When liposomal drugs enter a physiological environment, their surface gets coated by a dynamic biomolecular corona (BC).