ORGANISED ASSEMBLIES CONTAINING ENTRAPPED NEGATIVELY CHARGED POLYELECTROLYTES

摘要

Organised assemblies of zwitterionic lipids and negatively charged polyelectrolytes formed from repeating monomer units, in which the polyelectrolyte is substantially uniformly distributed, are described. The assemblies can entrap the polyelectrolyte with an efficiency of the order of 70 % or greater and can, therefore, be used as an effective means for the delivery of active polyelectrolytes to eucaryotic and procaryotic cells. The negatively charged polyelectrolytes can be oligomers such as oligonucleotides, including anti-sense oligomers or polymers such as nucleic acids, polysaccharides and proteins with a net negative charge.