GENE CARRIERS COMPRISING A BETA-1,3-GLUCAN AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING THE SAME

摘要

Disclosed are gene carriers utilizing beta -1,3-glucan and methods of preparing the same. The beta -1,3-glucan has at least one 1,6-glucopyranoside branch and is chemically modified through periodate oxidation and reductive animation so as to impart nucleic acid-binding functional groups (for example, cationic functional groups) to at least some of the 1,6-glucopyranoside branches thereof. Triple helix beta -1,3-glucan is dissolved in a polar organic solvent to form single-stranded beta -1,3-glucan. By replacing, in the presence of a nucleic acid, the polar organic solvent for the solution containing the chemically modified single-stranded beta -1,3-glucan by water, a complex (gene carrier) is formed in which the nucleic acid is bound to double-stranded beta -1,3-glucan. <IMAGE>