BACKGROUND A degradable polyethylenimine (PEI) derivative coupled to a bifunctional peptide R13 was developed to solve the transfection efficiency versus cytotoxicity and tumor-targeting problems of PEI when used as a gene vector. METHODS We crossed-linked low molecular weight PEI with N-octyl-N-quaternary chitosan (OTMCS) to synthesize a degradable PEI derivative (OTMCS-PEI), and then used a...

In this study, a novel amphiphilic copolymer designed as N-octyl-N-phthalyl-3,6-O-(2-hydroxypropyl) chitosan (OPHPC) were synthesized and then conjugated with folic acid (FA-OPHPC) to produce a targeted drug carrier for tumor-specific drug delivery. OPHPC and FA-OPHPC were characterized by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and elemental analysis. Paclitaxel (PTX) loaded OPHPC micelles (PTX-OPHPC) with...

We recently observed that the decanoylation of N-phenylthiocarbamoyl chitosan (2) with a mixture of decanoic anhydride and pyridine at 60 °C for 24 h afforded N,N-(decanoyl)phenythiocarbamoyl-/2-isothiocynato chitosan decanoate (3b) rather than the expected product N,N-(decanoyl)phenylthiocarbamoyl chitosan decanoate (3a). This result suggested that some of the N,N-(decanoyl)phenylthiocarmbamoy...

Films of chitosan and N,N,N-trimethylchitosan were cast from aqueous solutions. Chitosan was dissolved in 1% acetic acid while deionized water was the solvent for N,N,N-trimethylchitosan chloride. The resulting films presented different mechanical behaviors as evaluated by DMTA. The film of chitosan exhibited an elastic-type behavior while that of N,N,N-trimethylchitosan was typically viscous. ...

animal tumors (17)@and are less cardiotoxic in rabbits than are DNA and ADA.3 Although pharmacological studies of N-acet ylated, N-formylated, and N-trifluoroacetylated anthracycline antibiotics have been described, N-alkylated compounds have not been investigated. Since the cellular pharmacology of these compounds was undefined, we compared them to each other as well as to their parent compoun...