DNA solutions with multivalent salts and amphiphiles

Marcelo B.A. Silva, Paulo S. Kuhn and Liacir S. Lucena

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2001, vol. 296, issue 1, 31-41

Abstract: Polyelectrolytes are of great importance in different branches of chemistry and biology. DNA is a very good example of a polyelectrolyte of biological relevance. In this paper, we describe DNA solutions in the presence of multivalent salts and amphiphiles. After thermodynamic equilibrium is reached, the amphiphiles and the multivalent salts associate to DNA, leading to the formation of complexes. As the density of amphiphiles increases, we observe charge inversion of DNA complexes at not too high amphiphile densities. The formation of DNA-amphiphile complexes is essential for developing delivery systems in gene therapy, and we see that it is possible to reverse the charge of DNA even in the presence of multivalent salts.

Keywords: DNA; Polyelectrolytes; Complex systems; Charge inversion; Phase transitions; Biological physics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:296:y:2001:i:1:p:31-41

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(01)00130-3

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