Computational and Analytical Modeling of Cationic Lipid-DNA Complexes

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the physical properties of cationic lipid-DNA (CL-DNA) complexes - a promising synthetically based nonviral carrier of DNA for gene therapy. The study is based on a coarse-grained molecular model, which is used in Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of mesoscopically large systems over time scales long enough to address experimental reality. In the present work we focus on the statistical-mechanical behavior of lamellar complexes, which in MC simulations self-assemble spontaneously from a disordered random initial state.