Patent ID: 8734851

Claim:
An implantable medical device capable of localized delivery of nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide to a cell, comprising: (a) an implantable medical device; and (b) a polyelectrolyte assembly coating a surface of the medical device wherein said polyelectrolyte assembly comprises a multilayer film having a thickness of at least 100 nm, wherein said multilayer film comprises at least two bilayers, wherein each bilayer comprises a positively charged polycation first layer in contact with a negatively charged nucleic acid second layer, wherein the positively charged polycation layer alternates with the negatively charged nucleic acid layer, said alternated polycation and nucleic acid layers deposited on the surface of the medical device using a layer-by-layer fabrication procedure, wherein said nucleic acid comprises an expression vector comprising one or more regulatory sequences and a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide, and said nucleic acid is released by said polyelectrolyte assembly and delivered to said cell without use of any additional transfection reagents resulting in expression of said polypeptide by said cell, when said cell is in contact or near the coated surface of the medical device, and wherein said polycation is a polymer selected from the group consisting of poly(betaaminoester)s, polyethyleneimines, polyphosphoesters and dynamic charge state cationic polymers having a polymeric backbone formed from monomeric units, and one or more removable functional groups attached to the polymeric backbone through one or more labile linkages wherein the overall positive charge of the cationic polymer decreases when one or more of the removable functional groups is removed from the polymeric backbone.