Cyanuric chloride as the basis for compositionally diverse lipids

Cyanuric chloride has been utilized in the development of new synthetic lipid compounds using two differing schemes. The resulting lipids, presented in this manuscript, were characterized and evaluated for their ability to form nanoparticles and subsequently tested for their utility in various biological applications, including gene delivery and immunization. Of the 12 lipids synthesized, 8 formed nanoparticles that remained stable, based on dynamic light scattering, for at least one month. The compounds were then assessed for their toxicity, and subsequently tested for their ability to encapsulate drugs, genes and peptides. While the compounds did not seem to encapsulate carboxyfluorescein, we demonstrate that these lipids are capable of plasmid delivery in vitro , and inducing antibody profiles similar to other hydrophobic anchors in liposomal peptide vaccines. This strategy for accessing diverse lipid compounds offers a way to easily optimize lipid-based therapeutics for research in an expedited manner. Cyanuric chloride enables facile synthesis of lipids with unique biophysical properties for use in gene and vaccine delivery.