Interfacial indazolization: novel chemical evidence for remarkably high exo-surface pH of cationic liposomes used in gene transfection

A novel combined chemical kinetic and trapping method for probing the relationships between chemical reactivity and interfacial H2O, Br- and H+ ion molarities in CTAB/C12E6 mixed micelles

A delicate balance-of-forces governs the interactions responsible for surfactant self-assembly and chemical reactivity within them. Chemical reactions in micellar media generally occur in the interfacial region of micelles that is a complex mixture of: water, headgroups, counterions, co-ions, acids or bases, organic solvents, and the reactants themselves. We have carried out a detailed study of a complex chemical reaction in mixed CTAB/C₁₂E₆ micelles by using the chemical kinetic (CK) and chemical trapping (CT) methods. The results provide a detailed quantitative treatment of the reaction of the anion of the antioxidant t-butylhydroquinone, TBHQ^-, with 4-hexadecylbenzenediazonium, 16-ArN₂⁺, within the interfacial region of the mixed micelles in the C₁₂E₆ mole fraction range of 0 to 1 at three different total surfactant concentrations. CK experiments showed that this reaction is monophasic in C₁₂E₆ micelles, but biphasic in mixed micelles. The results were fully consistent with a complex mechanism in which TBHQ^- reacts with 16-ArN₂⁺ to give a transient diazoether intermediate that competitively breaks down into products and or reverts to starting materials. The kinetics are the same in mixed micelles of CTAB/C₁₂E₆ (grow) and CTAB/C₁₂E₈ (don't grow) showing that the rates only depend on micelle composition, not shape. CT results provided estimates of interfacial molarities of H₂O are approximately constant at ca. 39 and Br^- decreases from ca. 2.75 to 0.05 moles per liter of interfacial volume as C₁₂E₆ mole fraction increases from 0 to 1. Combined CK/CT results provided values for interfacial pH, ranging from ca. 4.25 in cationic micelles to 1.5 in nonionic micelles despite a constant bulk pH of 1.5 and the TBHQ interfacial pK_a = 3.8 at all C₁₂E₆ molar fractions. In totality, these results yielded an extraordinary amount of quantitative information about the relationships between the chemical reactivity and interfacial compositions of the mixed micelles.

Simultaneous determination of interfacial molarities of amide bonds, carboxylate groups, and water by chemical trapping in micelles of amphiphiles containing peptide bond models

Chemical trapping is a powerful approach for obtaining experimental estimates of interfacial molarities of weakly basic nucleophiles in the interfacial regions of amphiphile aggregates. Here, we demonstrate that the chemical probe 4-hexadecyl-2,6-dimethylbenzenediazonium ion (16-ArN(2)(+)) reacts competitively with interfacial water, with the amide carbonyl followed by cleavage of the headgroups from the tail at the amide oxygen, and with the terminal carboxylate groups in micelles of two N-acyl amino-acid amphiphiles, sodium N-lauroylsarcosinate (SLS) and sodium N-lauroylglycinate (SLG), simple peptide bond model amphiphiles. Interfacial molarities (in moles per liter of interfacial volume) of these three groups were obtained from product yields, assuming that selectivity toward a particular nucleophile compared to water is the same in an aqueous reference solution and in the interfacial region. Interfacial carboxylate group molarities are ~1.5 M in both SLS and SLG micelles, but the concentration of the amide carbonyl for SLS micelles is ~4.6-5 times less (ca. 0.7 M) than that of SLG micelles (~3 M). The proton on the secondary N of SLG helps solubilize the amide bond in the aqueous region, but the methyl on the tertiary N of SLS helps solubilize the amide bond in the micellar core, reducing its reaction with 16-ArN(2)(+). Application of chemical trapping to proteins in membrane mimetic interfaces should provide insight into the topology of the protein within the interface because trapping of the amide carbonyl and cleavage at the C-N bond occurs only within the interface, and fragment characterization marks those peptide bonds located within the interface.

Cell Biological and Biophysical Aspects of Lipid-mediated Gene Delivery

Cationic lipids are conceptually and methodologically simple tools to deliver nucleic acids into the cells. Strategies based on cationic lipids are viable alternatives to viral vectors and are becoming increasingly popular owing to their minimal toxicity. The first-generation cationic lipids were built around the quaternary nitrogen primarily for binding and condensing DNA. A large number of lipids with variations in the hydrophobic and hydrophilic region were generated with excellent transfection efficiencies in vitro. These cationic lipids had reduced efficiencies when tested for gene delivery in vivo. Efforts in the last decade delineated the cell biological basis of the cationic lipid gene delivery to a significant detail. The application of techniques such as small angle X-ray spectroscopy (SAXS) and fluorescence microscopy, helped in linking the physical properties of lipid:DNA complex (lipoplex) with its intracellular fate. This biological knowledge has been incorporated in the design of the second-generation cationic lipids. Lipid-peptide conjugates (peptoids) are effective strategies to overcome the various cellular barriers along with the lipoplex formulations methodologies. In this context, cationic lipid-mediated gene delivery is considerably benefited by the methodologies of liposome-mediated drug delivery. Lipid mediated gene delivery has an intrinsic advantage of being a biomimetic platform on which considerable variations could be built to develop efficient in vivo gene delivery protocols.

Thermodynamics of cationic lipid-DNA complex formation as studied by isothermal titration calorimetry

The detailed analysis of the cationic lipid-DNA complex formation by means of isothermal titration calorimetry is presented. Most experiments were done using 1,2-dioleyl-sn-glycero-3-ethylphosphocholine (EDOPC), but basic titrations were also done using DOTAP, DOTAP:DOPC, and DOTAP:DOPE mixtures. Complex formation was endothermic with less than 1 kcal absorbed per mole of lipid or DNA charge. This enthalpy change was attributed to DNA-DNA mutual repulsion within the lamellar complex. The exception was DOTAP:DOPE-containing lipoplex for which the enthalpy of formation was exothermic, presumably because of DOPE amine group protonation. Experimental conditions, namely, direction and titration increment as well as concentration of titrant, which dictate the structure of resulting lipoplex (whether lamellar complex or DNA-coated vesicle), were found to affect the apparent thermodynamics of complex formation. The structure, in turn, influences the biological properties of the lipoplex. If the titration of lipid into DNA was carried out in large increments, the DeltaH was larger than when the injection increments were smaller, a finding that is consistent with increased vesicle disruption under large increments and which is expected theoretically. Cationic lipid-DNA binding was weak in high ionic strength solutions, however, the effective binding constant is within micromolar range because of macromolecular nature of the interaction.