Polymeric micelle prepared through the self-assembly of cationic cholesterol-modified gelatin was tested for siRNA delivery. It exerted the desired effect of gene knockdown in HeLa cells stably expressing the luciferase gene and achieved a two-fold increase in the knockdown ability when compared to Lipofectamine® 2000. It was found that the polymeric micelle exhibited excellent stability and in...

Cryo-TEM was carried out on samples containing polyelectrolyte-micelle complexes, formed by combining poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC), a strong cationic polyelectrolye, with oppositely charged mixed micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and nonionic Triton X-100 (TX100), in 0.40 M NaCl. Complexation appears to involve the formation of micelle-rich regions, presumably within ...

A theory is introduced to describe self-assembly of liquid crystalline AB diblock copolymers, consisting of a homopolymer (A) and a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer (B). We derive the free energy of the liquid crystalline micellar solutions and examine the equilibrium solution properties: critical micelle concentration (CMC), nematic-isotropic phase transition (NIT) of the rigid side-chain...

The solubilization of glucose and several related sugars in benzene solutions of rigorously purified phosphatidylcholine has been studied; the equilibrium degree of solubilization has been found to depend on the size of the sugar molecule relative to that of the lecithin micelle, and on the number and the acidity of its free hydroxyl groups. The uptake of glucose increased as the lecithin conce...

The effects of a Micelle Encapsulator Fire Suppression Agent (F-500, Hazard Control Technologies Inc., Fayetteville, Georgia) on the routine analysis of fire debris samples by Gas Chromatography (GC) were studied. When mixed with water the product can be used in the suppression of Class A and Class B fires. Laboratory tests were performed to determine whether or not the product has any effect o...

Surface modification and functionalization of bioconjugated quantum dots (QDs) has drawn great attention for the past few years due to their wide applications in biomedical research. In this contribution, we demonstrate the use of PEGylated phospholipid micelles to encapsulate near infrared emitting ultra-small lead sulfide (PbS) QDs for in vitro and in vivo imaging. The cytotoxicity of the mic...

The phenomenon of micellization in non-ionic surfactant Brij-58 (Bj-58) have been studied by measuring the cloud points (CP) of the pure surfactant and mixed system with Alanine (Ala) and Phenylalanine (PA). The CP of pure surfactant found to be decreased with increased [ Bj-58]. The CP of mixed system also shows same trends with increased [Ala] and [PA]. This is mainly due to increase in micel...

The mixing Gibbs energy ∆gm for the flower-micelle phase of amphiphilic random and periodic (including alternating) copolymers was formulated on the basis of the lattice model. The formulated ∆gm predicts (1) the inverse proportionality of the aggregation number to the degree of polymerization of the copolymer, (2) the increase of the critical micelle concentration with decreasing the hydrophob...

In this work, metal ion-induced viscoelastic wormlike micelles in anionic/zwitterionic surfactant solutions (sodium dodecylsulfate/tetradecyldimethylammoniumpropanesulfonate, SDS/TPS) are reported. Steady and dynamic rheology and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) are employed to characterize wormlike micelles in the SDS/TPS/Ca(NO(3))(2) system. Moreover, the surfactant mixin...