Journal of Controlled Release2015ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Bishop, C. J.; Kozielski, K. L.; Green, J. J
Viral vectors raise safety concerns, and non-viral polymeric vectors still require optimisation for clinical translation. This review addresses how polymer structural features govern intracellular nucleic acid delivery — including cargo protection, cellular uptake, endosomal escape, unpacking, and nuclear delivery —…
Read the article →2015ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Li, L.; Wei, Y.; Gong, C
Viral vectors are efficient but carry risks of immunogenicity, inflammatory reactions, recombination, limited DNA cargo capacity, and manufacturing difficulties. Non-viral polymeric vectors are safer and easier to produce, but their transfection efficiency remains much lower than viral vectors because of multiple…
Read the article →Nature Reviews Genetics2014ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Yin H, Kanasty Rl, Eltoukhy Aa, Vegas Aj, Dorkin Jr, Anderson Dg.
Gene-based therapy has potential to treat a wide range of diseases, but clinical success is limited by delivery barriers. Viral vectors, while efficient, carry risks of carcinogenesis, immunogenicity, broad tropism, limited packaging capacity, and manufacturing difficulties. Non-viral vectors offer improved safety…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2014ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Lee, Y. S.; Kim, S. W
Cationic polymeric gene carriers are promising non-viral vectors, but their slow degradability and intracellular/tissue accumulation cause cytotoxicity. Bioreducible polymers containing disulfide linkages are attractive because they are stable extracellularly but degrade selectively in the reducing intracellular…
Read the article →Journal of Drug Targeting (J Drug Target)2013ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Jing Yao, Ying Fan, Yuanke Li, And Leaf Huang
Non-viral gene delivery systems are safer than viral vectors but are highly inefficient at nuclear delivery. Only ~10–20% of applied plasmid DNA enters targeted cells, and only ~1–5% of the applied dose reaches the nucleus. The nuclear envelope is a major barrier to transgene delivery, and there is a need for “smart”…
Read the article →Molecular Therapy.2013ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
El-Sayed A, Harashima H
Nonviral gene delivery vectors remain less efficient than viral vectors, and their intracellular fate is strongly influenced by the endocytic route they enter. The cell membrane is now understood to contain lipid raft and non-raft domains, and the initial binding domain can determine the primary endocytic vesicle…
Read the article →2012ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Zhang X-X, Mcintosh Tj, Grinstaff Mw
Cationic lipids are the most common non-viral gene-delivery vectors, but they generally suffer from low transfection efficiency. Functional or stimulus-responsive lipids—especially pH-, redox-, and charge-reversal-sensitive lipids—may improve nucleic acid delivery by enabling triggered cargo release, endosomal…
Read the article →Pharmaceutical Research2011ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Wei-Yun Sheng, Leaf Huang
The immune system can recognise and kill pre-cancer and cancer cells, but surviving tumour cells learn to escape immune surveillance after immunoselection. Cancer immunotherapy aims to overcome these escape mechanisms. Nanomedicine offers tools—nanodiagnostics and nanobiopharmaceuticals—to deliver antigens…
Read the article →2011ReviewDrug Delivery
Torchilin Vp
Lipid-based nanocarriers such as liposomes and micelles can protect drugs, reduce nonspecific toxicity, and improve pharmacokinetics, but conventional formulations are limited by rapid clearance, poor targeting, and inefficient intracellular delivery. Engineering “multifunctional pharmaceutical nanocarriers” that…
Read the article →Pharmazie.2011ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Cationic liposomes (CLs) are attractive non-viral gene-delivery carriers because they are safer, less immunogenic, and easier to prepare than viral vectors, but their transfection efficiency (TE) remains low and the relationship between lipoplex physicochemical properties, lipoplex–cell interaction, and TE is poorly…
Read the article →Journal of Drug Delivery2011ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Daniel A. Balazs, W.T. Godbey
Liposomes are versatile, biocompatible vesicular carriers that can encapsulate and deliver DNA or RNA, but the relationship between lipid charge, lipid packing, and gene-delivery efficiency remains complex. This review discusses physical packing parameters and specific lipids used for gene delivery, classified by…
Read the article →Polymers2011ReviewDrug Delivery
Hirenkumar K. Makadia And Steven J. Siegel
PLGA has become one of the most attractive biodegradable polymers for drug delivery and tissue engineering, but its degradation and drug-release behaviour depend on many interconnected variables—polymer composition, molecular weight, crystallinity, device geometry, fabrication method, and drug type. A consolidated…
Read the article →Gene Therapy2010ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Lam Ap, Dean Da.
The nuclear envelope remains a major barrier to successful nonviral transfection and gene therapy. After exogenous DNA is delivered to the cytoplasm, it rapidly complexes with cellular proteins that control its intracellular trafficking and nuclear import. Understanding these mechanisms is necessary to improve…
Read the article →Angewandte Chemie International Edition2010ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Knop, K.; Hoogenboom, R.; Fischer, D.; Schubert, U. S
PEG is the gold-standard stealth polymer for drug delivery, but its widespread use has revealed possible side effects and complications, including hypersensitivity, altered pharmacokinetics, toxic side products, stress-induced degradation, and non-biodegradability. This review critically discusses PEG’s advantages…
Read the article →Soft Matter2010ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Parhamifar, L.; Larsen, A. K.; Hunter, A. C.; Andresen, T. L.; Moghimi, S. M
Efficient transfection with low toxicity is essential for nucleic acid therapeutics, but synthetic polycations such as polyethylenimine (PEI) are limited by cytotoxicity. This review critically assesses the safety and efficacy challenges of PEI-based polyplexes, identifies deficiencies in the field, and proposes…
Read the article →European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences2010ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Conchita Tros De Ilarduya, Yan Sun, Nejat Düzgüneş
Viral vectors achieve high gene transfer efficiency but can induce immune/inflammatory responses, have limited DNA carrying capacity, and raise recombination and cost concerns. Non-viral vectors such as cationic lipids and polymers are safer alternatives, but their transfection efficiency—especially in vivo—remains…
Read the article →Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery2010ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Zhu L, Mahato Ri
Nucleic acid therapeutics—plasmid DNA, antisense oligonucleotides, and RNAi molecules—have broad therapeutic potential but face major biological barriers, including nuclease degradation, poor membrane penetration, endosomal entrapment, nonspecific biodistribution, and immune activation. The review addresses how…
Read the article →2009ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Sunshine, J.; Bhise, N.; Green, J. J
Non-viral gene delivery needs safe and effective carriers. PEI is effective but cytotoxic, while viral vectors raise safety concerns. Degradable poly(β-amino ester)s may provide effective gene delivery with reduced cytotoxicity. This study investigates how small changes in polymer synthesis ratio and end-group…
Read the article →Accounts of Chemical Research2008ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Green, J. J.; Langer, R.; Anderson, D. G
Gene therapy has enormous therapeutic potential, but delivery remains the central bottleneck. Viral vectors are efficient but carry serious safety, immunogenicity, manufacturing, and cargo-capacity limitations. Nonviral vectors are safer and more scalable but typically orders of magnitude less effective. This Account…
Read the article →2007ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Li W, Szoka Fc Jr
Systemic non-viral gene delivery is limited by rapid clearance, toxicity, and poor target-cell access. Cationic lipid–DNA lipoplexes are effective in vitro but perform poorly in vivo because they aggregate with serum proteins, are cleared by the reticuloendothelial system (RES), and accumulate mainly in lung and…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2007ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Gary, D. J.; Puri, N.; Won, Y.-Y
Polymer-based siRNA delivery is promising but faces limitations similar to polymer-based DNA delivery, yet the two nucleic acids differ fundamentally in size, stiffness, stability, site of action, and duration of effect. This review addresses the need to understand these distinctions so that knowledge from the…
Read the article →Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents2006ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Mcneil Se, Perrie Y
Cationic liposomes have been developed for gene delivery for almost 20 years, but despite extensive effort, there has been limited progress toward an effective pharmaceutical product. Their transfection efficiency remains insufficient, and most clinical trials still rely on more potent viral vectors despite viral…
Read the article →Nature Materials2006ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Putnam D
Synthetic polymer-based gene delivery vectors have been studied for two decades but remain far less efficient than viral vectors. The review addresses the need for improved design criteria and new synthetic strategies across nano-, micro-, and macroscale delivery systems to overcome formulation, organism-level, and…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2006ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Lv H, Zhang S, Wang B, Cui S, Yan J
Cationic lipids and polymers are promising non-viral gene delivery vectors because they are non-immunogenic, easy to produce, and not oncogenic, but toxicity remains a major obstacle to their clinical application. The review evaluates structural features of cationic compounds and summarises toxicity–structure…
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