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The main challenge in gene therapy is successful in vivo transfer of genetic materials to the targeted tissues.Unfortunately,a suitable vector for safe and efficient delivery of therapeutic genes into target cells is currently not yet available.Vectors for gene delivery can be divided into two classes,viral and non-viral.Non-viral vectors such as cationic polymer-DNA complexes(polyplexes)have gained a great deal of interests for their advantages including lower host immunogenicity,enabling repeated administration,higher gene carrying capacity,and easy availability even with large scales.However,the transfection efficiencies(TE)of non-viral vectors are generally much lower than the viral ones.It has been well studied that the TE is greatly dependent on a vectors characteristics including its nitrogen profile,charge density,protonation range,molecular weight and topological structure.In our group,macrocyclic polyamines(MPA,such as cyclen and TACN)were first applied for the design and synthesis of potential gene vector materials,which include cationic lipids with MPA as hydrophilic headgroups,MPA-based linear and reticular cationic polymers,and MPA-modified gold nanoparticles.Their structure-activity relationships were systematically studied.Several materials were found to have better TE and biocompatibility than commercially available transfection reagents.