POSSIBILITY OF APPLICATION OF QUATERNARY CHITOSAN HAVING PENDANT GALACTOSE RESIDUES AS GENE DELIVERY TOOL

Since chitosan is a cationic natural polysaccharide having the formati on ability of a polyelectrolyte complex with DNA, it is expected to be used as a carrier of DNA in gene delivery systems. So, in order to ac hieve an efficient gene delivery via receptor-mediated endocytosis, th e synthesis of a novel polycationic polysaccharide derivative having r ecognizable saccharide residues, N,N,N-trimethyl(TM)-chitosan/galactos e conjugate, was performed. The formation of a polyelectrolyte complex with DNA and the cellular recognition ability of TM-chitosan/galactos e conjugate were tested, and then the possibility of its application a s a gene delivery tool was investigated. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier S cience Ltd