(Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, The Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200031, China)
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DOI:
10.7502/j.issn.1674-3962.2012.06.06
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Abstract:
Reducible polymers are characterized by introduction of disulfide bonds in their structures. Such polymers remain highly stable in circulation and extracellular environment, but quickly go through degradation and release cargo in the cytosol because of the natural existence of the redox potential gradients between extracellular and intracellular space. This remarkable features render them increased transfection rate and decreased cytotoxicity. Reductionsensitive polymers show great prospect for construction of ideal nucleic acid delivery system. There are two major approaches used to incorporate reducible bonds in polymers, first synthesizing cationic polymers with reactants which contain disulfide linkages, second introducing thiols into the structures that can convert to disulfide bonds through oxidation. This review discusses recent advances in application of bioreducible polymers for nucleic acid delivery, with particular focus on rational design and synthesis of these polymers.