As a promising strategy for the treatment of various diseases, gene therapy has attracted increasing attention over the past decade. Among various gene delivery approaches, non-viral vectors made of synthetic biomaterials have shown significant potential. Due to their synthetic nature, non-viral vectors can have tunable structures and properties by using various building units. In particular, they can offer advantages over viral vectors with respect to biosafety and cytotoxicity. In this study, a well-defined poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(α-(propylthio-N,N-diethylethanamine hydrochloride)-ε-caprolactone) diblock polymer (PEG-b-CPCL) with one poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) block and one tertiary amine-functionalized cationic poly(ε-caprolactone) (CPCL) block, as a novel non-viral vector in the delivery of plasmid DNA (pDNA), was synthesized and studied. Despite having a degradable polymeric structure, the polymer showed remarkable hydrolytic stability over multiple weeks. The optimal ratio of the polymer to pDNA for nanocomplex formation, pDNA release from the nanocomplex with the presence of heparin, and serum stability of the nanocomplex were probed through gel electrophoresis. Nanostructure of the nanocomplexes was characterized by DLS and TEM imaging. Relative to CPCL homopolymers, PEG-b-CPCL led to better solubility over a wide range of pH. Overall, this work demonstrates that PEG-b-CPCL possesses a range of valuable properties as a promising synthetic vector for pDNA delivery.
