Patent ID: 8158827

Claim:
A lipid aggregate comprising a compound or polycation having the formula: wherein Q is N; L is CH 2 , (CH 2 ) 1 or {(CH 2 ) i —Y—(CH 2 ) j } k , where Y is selected from the group consisting of CH 2 , an ether, a polyether, an amide, a polyamide, an ester, a sulfide, a urea, a thiourea, a guanidyl, a carbamoyl, a carbonate, a phosphate, a sulfate, a sulfoxide, an imine, a carbonyl, and a secondary amino group and wherein Y is optionally substituted by —X 1 —L′ —X 2 —Z or —Z; where X 1 and X 2 , independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of NH, O, S, alkylene, and arylene; L′ is selected from the group consisting of alkylene, alkenylene, alkynylene, arylene, alkylene ether, and polyether; R 1 -R 6 independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of H, —(CH 2 ) p -D-Z, an alkyl, an alkenyl, an alkynyl, an aryl, and an alkyl ether group optionally substituted by one or more of an alcohol, an aminoalcohol, an amine, an amide, an ether, a polyether, a polyamide, an ester, a mercaptan, an alkylthio, a urea, a thiourea, a guanidyl, or a carbamoyl group, and wherein at least one of R 1 , R 3 , R 4 and R 6 is a straight-chain, branched, or cyclic alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl or aryl group having from about 6 to about 64 carbon atoms; and R 1 and R 4 or R 3 and R 6 may optionally be covalently linked with each other, or with L to form a cyclic moiety; Z is selected from the group consisting of amine, spermiyl, carboxyspermiyl, guanidyl, spermidinyl, putricinyl, diaminoalkyl, pyridyl, piperidinyl, pyrrolidinyl, polyamine, amino acid, peptide, and protein; D is Q or a bond; A 1 and A 2 , independently of one another, are selected from the group consisting of CH 2 O, CH 2 S, CH 2 NH, C(O), C(NH), C(S) and (CH 2 ) t ; X is a physiologically acceptable anion; m, n, r, s, u, v, w and y are 1; i, j, k, p and t are integers from 0 to about 100; 1 is an integer from 3 to about 100; q is an integer from 1 to about 1000; and a is the number of positive charges divided by the valence of the anion.