Sugar‐based tertiary amino gemini surfactants with a vesicle‐to‐micelle transition in the endosomal pH range mediate efficient transfection in vitro

Novel reduced sugar gemini amphiphiles linked through their tertiary amino head groups via alkyl spacers of 4 or 6 carbons, and with varying (unsaturated) alkyl tail lengths of 12–18, have been synthesized and tested for transfection in vitro in an adherent Chinese hamster ovary cell line (CHO‐K1). Transfection efficiencies peaked at 2.7 times that of the commercial standard Lipofectamine Plus/2000 for pure solutions of the compound bearing unsaturated (oleyl) alkyl tails. For those compounds bearing saturated alkyl tails, transfection efficiency peaked at a tail length of 16, at a level similar to Lipofectamine Plus/2000. All of the amphiphiles formed bilayer vesicles at physiological pH. Some of the amino groups at the surface were protonated, and vesicles therefore bore a positive charge. Increased protonation with reduced pH resulted in greatly increased monomer solubility and a morphology change from vesicle to micelle at characteristic pH values, dependent on the tail length. For the compounds promoting high transfection efficiency, this characteristic pH was within the range found in the endosomal compartment (7.4–4.0). Formation of mixed micelles between gemini surfactant and membrane phospholipids at reduced pH may therefore provide a method of endosome rupture and subsequent escape of entrapped DNA, thus discarding the need for extra fusogenic or endosomolytic agents. The positive charge on the vesicles at physiological pH drives the colloidal association with DNA. Small angle X‐ray scattering measurements indicate that lamellar aggregates are formed, which have a d spacing of 48–54 Å. Preliminary differential scanning calorimetric measurements suggest that reduction of pH causes a disordering of the hydrocarbon region of the DNA–surfactant complex.