A novel class of cell-penetrating enhancers with unusual chemical structure is herein disclosed. Said cell-penetrating enhancers are non-linear and non peptidic (guanidyl)-oligosaccharidic derivatives, which can be easily obtained according to simple and reproducible synthetic steps. A wide array of cell penetration enhancers can be obtained by slight modification of the main structure oligosaccharidic backbone and in order to provide for their conjugation or physical combination with a variety of therapeutic systems. These molecules can be designed for conjugation to proteins or polymer therapeutics or for surface decoration of liposomes or nanoparticles. Finally, the cationic features and the penetration enhancer properties of the corona-like (guanidyl)-oligosaccharidic derivatives can be exploited for oligonucleotide, namely siRNA, or gene delivery.
