Binding and clustering of glycosaminoglycans: A common property of mono- and multivalent cell-penetrating compounds

Recent observations in cell culture provide evidence that negatively charged glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) at the surface of biological cells bind cationic cell-penetrating compounds (CPCs) and cluster during CPC binding, thereby contributing to their endocytotic uptake. The GAG binding and clustering occur in the low-micromolar concentration range and suggest a tight interaction between GAGs and CPCs, although the relation between binding affinity and specificity of this interaction remains to be investigated. We therefore measured the GAG binding and clustering of various mono- and multivalent CPCs such as DNA transfection vectors (polyethylenimine; 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane), amino acid homopolymers (oligoarginine; oligolysine), and cell-penetrating peptides (Penetratin; HIV-1 Tat) by means of isothermal titration calorimetry and dynamic light scattering. We find that these structurally diverse CPCs share the property of GAG binding and clustering. The binding is very tight (microscopic dissociation constants between 0.34 and 1.34 mu M) and thus biologically relevant. The hydrodynamic radius of the resulting aggregates ranges from 78 nm to 586 nm, suggesting that they consist of numerous GAG chains cross-linked by CPCs. Likewise, the membrane-permeant monovalent cation acridine orange leads to GAG binding and clustering, in contrast to its membrane-impermeant structural analogs propidium iodide and ethidium bromide. Because the binding and clustering of GAGs were found to be a common denominator of all CPCs tested, these properties might be helpful to identify further CPCs.