Dagen Zhong

Publications (2)9.56 Total impact

• Article: Effects of the gene carrier polyethyleneimines on structure and function of blood components.

  Dagen Zhong, Yanpeng Jiao, Yi Zhang, Wei Zhang, Nan Li, Qinhua Zuo, Qian Wang, Wei Xue, Zonghua Liu
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  ABSTRACT: As a synthetic polycation, polyethylenimine (PEI) is currently one of the most effective non-viral gene carriers. For in vivo applications, PEI will enter systemic circulation and interact with various blood components and then affect their individual bio-functions. Up to now, overall and systematic investigation on the interaction of PEI with multiple blood components at cellular, membrane, and molecular levels is lacking, even though it is critically important for the in vivo safety of PEI. To learn a structure-activity relationship, we investigated the effects of PEI with different molecular weight (MW) and shape (branched or linear) on key blood components and function, specifically, on RBC aggregation and morphological change, platelet activation, conformation change of albumin (as a representative of plasma proteins), and blood coagulation process. Additionally, more proteins from plasma were screened and identified to have associations with PEI by a proteomic analysis. It was found that, the PEIs have severe impact on RBC membrane structure, albumin conformation, and blood coagulation process, but do not significantly activate platelets at low concentrations. Furthermore, 41 plasma proteins were identified to have some interaction with PEI. This indicates that, besides albumin, PEI does interact with a variety of blood plasma proteins, and could have unexplored effects on their structures and bio-functions. The results provide good insight into the molecular design and blood safety of PEI and other polycations for in vivo applications.
  Biomaterials 10/2012; · 7.40 Impact Factor
• Article: Preparation and characterization of PEM-coated alginate microgels for controlled release of protein.

  Qinhua Zuo, Jianbo Lu, An Hong, Dagen Zhong, Shasha Xie, Quan Liu, Yuexin Huang, Yunfeng Shi, Liumin He, Wei Xue
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  ABSTRACT: In this study, calcium-alginate microgels coated with a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) were fabricated as a controlled-release system. This system was constructed via an electrostatic droplet generation technique followed by a layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technique. The electrostatic droplet generation technique was reported as an easy method of preparing microgels, due to their mild preparation conditions and ability to preserve the biological activity of the encapsulated drugs. With the LbL self-assembly technique, the PEM could be fabricated on the microgels attributed to the electrostatic attraction between positive-charged chitosan (Chi) and negative-charged dextran sulfate (Dex). The properties of the prepared microgels were investigated using dynamic laser scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum and zeta potential analyzer. In vitro release study indicated that the initial burst release of the bovine serum albumin (BSA) from PEM-coated microgels was less compared to the uncoated microgels (19% versus 31% in 24 h). In addition, the sustained release of BSA from the PEM-coated microgels was recorded up to 1 month without any damage to BSA integrity. Thus, our results demonstrated that the PEM-coated microgels not only prolonged the release time, but also relieved the initial burst problem to some degree and preserved the biological activity of the encapsulated drugs. Moreover, the release rate of BSA could be regulated by controlling the number of deposited layers. In conclusion, this study presented an easy yet effective method for the controlled, sustained release of biological macromolecules.
  Biomedical Materials 04/2012; 7(3):035012. · 2.16 Impact Factor