Biodegradable polyamines have long been studied as potential recombinant viral gene vectors.Spermine(SPE) is an endogenous tetra-amine with excellent biocompatibility yet poor gene condensation capacity. We have previously synthesized a polyspermine based on SPE and poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG)diacrylate(SPE-alt-PEG) for enhanced transfection performance, but the synthesized SPE-alt-PEG still lacked specificity towards cancer cells. In this study, folic acid(FA) was incorporated into SPE-alt-PEG to fabricate a targeted gene delivery vector(FA-SPE-PEG) via an acylation reaction. FA-SPE-PEG exhibited mild cytotoxicity in both cancer cells and normal cells. FA-SPE-PEG possessed higher transfection efficiency than PEI 25 K and Lipofectamines2000 in two tested cancer cell lines at functional weight ratios, and its superiority over untargeted SPE-alt-PEG was prominent in cells with overexpressed folate receptors(FRs). Moreover, in vivo delivery of green fluorescent protein(GFP) with FA-SPE-PEG resulted in highest fluorescent signal intensity of all investigated groups. FA-SPE-PEG showed remarkably enhanced specificity towards cancer cells both in vivo and in vitro due to the interaction between FA and FRs. Taken together, FA-SPE-PEG was demonstrated to be a prospective targeted gene delivery vector with high transfection capacity and excellent biocompatibility.
