Papers, explained in our own words

1. Beyond Lipids: Exploring Advances in Polymeric Gene Delivery in the Lipid Nanoparticles Era

Cm Jogdeo, K Siddhanta, A Das, L Ding, S Panja, N Kumari, D Oupický

A review of polymer-based alternatives to lipid gene delivery, including polyplexes and polymer–nucleic acid conjugates, with attention to chemical tunability and clinical translation.

• Polymeric gene delivery
• Polyplexes
• Nucleic acids
• Polymer conjugates
• Non-viral delivery
• Clinical translation
• Nanocarriers

2. Poly (beta‐amino ester) as an in vivo nanocarrier for therapeutic nucleic acids

Sadeqi Nezhad, M

Therapeutic nucleic acids require safe and effective in vivo delivery vectors. Most gene and cell therapies rely on ex vivo gene delivery, which is laborious, time-consuming, and costly. PBAE is a promising biodegradable synthetic cationic polymer for in vivo gene delivery due to its transfection efficiency…

• Nanocarriers
• Nucleic acids
• Polymeric
• DNA
• Poly(beta-amino ester)
• Gene delivery
• mRNA

3. Construction of Nanocarriers Based on Nucleic Acids and Their Applications in Nanobiology Delivery Systems

Yingshu Guo, Xiuping Cao, Xiaofei Zheng, Sk Jahir Abbas, Juan Li, Weihong Tan

Cancer treatment still relies heavily on chemotherapy, which causes severe damage to normal cells and systemic side effects. Safer, more selective drug delivery strategies are needed. Nanocarriers based on nucleic acids (NCNAs) are attractive because nucleic acids offer biocompatibility, low toxicity, programmable…

• Nanocarriers
• Nucleic acids
• siRNA
• DNA
• Nanoparticles
• Drug delivery
• Chemotherapy

4. Magnetic Nanocomplexes for Gene Delivery Applications

Rih-Yang Huang, Zhuo-Hao Liu, Wei-Han Weng, Chien-Wen Chang

Gene therapy requires safe, precise, efficient, and cost-effective delivery. Viral vectors are efficient but face manufacturing, cost, and safety challenges; non-viral vectors are safer and more scalable but often have low delivery efficiency. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have emerged as a promising strategy to…

• Gene delivery
• Transfection
• Nanoparticles
• siRNA
• DNA
• Gene editing
• Nucleic acids

5. Cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids The case of ionizable lipid nanoparticles

Schlich M, Palomba R, Costabile G, Mizrahy S, Pannuzzo M, Peer D, Decuzzi P

Endosomal escape remains the major intracellular barrier for RNA therapeutics. Only a small fraction of RNA delivered by ionisable lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) reaches the cytosol, where siRNA, miRNA, mRNA, and CRISPR components must act. A deeper mechanistic understanding is needed to design next-generation LNPs with…

• Lipid nanoparticle
• Nanoparticles
• Nucleic acids
• mRNA
• Endosomal escape
• Peptides
• siRNA

6. Synthetic materials at the forefront of gene delivery

Irene Lostalé-Seijo And Javier Montenegro

Gene therapy has enormous therapeutic potential, but clinical translation is limited by the delivery problem: nucleic acids are negatively charged, unstable, and must overcome multiple biological barriers to reach their intracellular site of action. Viral vectors are efficient but suffer from immunogenicity, limited…

• Gene delivery
• Polymeric
• siRNA
• DNA
• Nanoparticles
• Viral vectors
• Nucleic acids

7. Polymeric Nucleic Acid Delivery for Immunoengineering

Tzeng Sy, Green Jj

Nucleic acids can be used to engineer the immune system, but their clinical use requires better specificity and intracellular delivery efficiency. Viral vectors have manufacturing, cargo-capacity, safety, and immunological drawbacks; therefore, polymers are being developed as non-viral delivery vehicles whose…

• Polymeric
• DNA
• T cells
• Nucleic acids
• Poly(beta-amino ester)
• siRNA
• Nanoparticles

8. Liposomal Delivery Systems: Design Optimization and Current Applications

Liposomes are attractive pharmaceutical carriers because they encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs and are biocompatible and biodegradable. However, conventional liposomes suffer from aggregation/fusion, premature payload release, rapid clearance by the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), low entrapment…

• Liposomes
• siRNA
• Peptides
• Nucleic acids
• Lipid nanoparticle
• Endosomal escape
• Cell-penetrating peptides

9. Gene Delivery Nanoparticles to Modulate Angiogenesis

Jayoung Kim, Adam C. Mirando, Aleksander S. Popel, Jordan J. Green

Angiogenesis is normally balanced by pro- and anti-angiogenic factors, but imbalance leads to aberrant angiogenesis in ischaemia, tissue regeneration, cancer, and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD). Gene therapy is a promising strategy to introduce exogenous nucleic acids that express or silence…

• Gene delivery
• Nanoparticles
• Angiogenesis
• Transfection
• Nucleic acids
• PLGA
• mRNA

10. Solid lipid nanoparticles as nucleic acid delivery system Properties and molecular mechanisms

De Jesus Mb, Zuhorn Is

Non-viral nucleic acid delivery requires carriers that protect DNA/RNA from nucleases and facilitate intracellular delivery. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are promising, but the molecular mechanisms by which they assemble with nucleic acids, transfect cells, and release cargo remain poorly understood compared with…

• Lipid nanoparticle
• Nanoparticles
• siRNA
• Transfection
• DNA
• Nucleic acids
• Endosomal escape

11. Amphiphilic poly(amino acid) based micelles applied to drug delivery The in vitro and in vivo challenges and the corresponding potential strategies

Helin Xu, Qing Yao, Cuifang Cai, Jinxin Gou, Yu Zhang, Haijun Zhong, Xing Tang

Amphiphilic poly(amino acid)-based micelles are attractive for systemic drug delivery because they are biodegradable, biocompatible, have functional side groups, can load diverse drugs, and can exploit the EPR effect. However, low cargo capacity and poor stability in blood remain major barriers to clinical…

• Micelles
• Drug delivery
• Polymeric
• siRNA
• PLGA
• Nucleic acids
• Biodistribution

12. Biodegradable Polymer Nanogels for DrugNucleic Acid Delivery

Li, Y.; Maciel, D.; Rodrigues, J.; Shi, X.; Tomás, H

Despite extensive research, therapeutic delivery still faces major barriers: poor plasma stability, rapid clearance by the reticuloendothelial system (RES), and intracellular obstacles such as endosomal entrapment and lysosomal degradation. Biodegradable polymer nanogels (NGs) — physically or chemically cross-linked…

• Polymeric
• Nucleic acids
• Biodistribution
• siRNA
• Chitosan
• Peptides
• Micelles

13. Targeted polymeric nanoparticles for cancer gene therapy

Kim J, Wilson Dr, Zamboni Cg, Green Jj

Cancer gene therapy requires safe and efficient delivery of nucleic acids, but viral vectors carry risks of immunogenicity and insertional tumorigenicity, while non-viral polymeric vectors are safer but less efficient. The review addresses the need for targeted polymeric nanoparticles that achieve tumour-specific…

• Polymeric
• Nanoparticles
• Transfection
• Polyethylenimine
• Viral vectors
• Nucleic acids
• siRNA

14. Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Using Polyplexes: A Journey of 50 Years (and Beyond)

Ulrich Lächelt And Ernst Wagner

Therapeutic nucleic acids—including plasmid DNA, mRNA, siRNA, miRNA, antisense oligonucleotides, and aptamers—have broad therapeutic potential, but their delivery to the correct intracellular site of action remains the dominant bottleneck. Polyplexes, formed by electrostatic complexation of nucleic acids with…

• Polymeric
• siRNA
• Polyethylenimine
• mRNA
• Nucleic acids
• Peptides
• Transfection

15. PLGA-based nanoparticles: An overview of biomedical applications

Fabienne Danhier, Eduardo Ansorena, Joana M. Silva, Regis Coco, Aude Le Breton, Véronique Préat

PLGA is one of the most successfully developed biodegradable polymers, with FDA and EMA approval for parenteral drug delivery, but a comprehensive overview linking its formulation methods, physicochemical pitfalls, targeting strategies, and applications across multiple diseases was needed. This review presents why…

• Nanoparticles
• PLGA
• Polymeric
• Drug delivery
• Chitosan
• Nucleic acids
• Biodistribution

16. Cancer Immunotherapy and Nanomedicine

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…

• Cancer immunotherapy
• Immunotherapy
• Nanomedicine
• DNA
• Nanoparticles
• Lipid nanoparticle
• Nucleic acids

17. Polycation cytotoxicity a delicate matter for nucleic acid therapy—focus on polyethylenimine

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…

• Polyethylenimine
• Polymeric
• DNA
• siRNA
• Transfection
• Chitosan
• Nucleic acids

18. Nanoparticle-based targeted drug delivery

Singh R, Lillard Jw Jr.

Nanotechnology enables control and manufacture of structures in the nanometer range, and nanoparticles exhibit novel properties that differ from bulk materials. There is a need for targeted drug delivery systems that improve solubility, bioavailability, sustained release, protection from degradation, and…

• Drug delivery
• Nanoparticles
• Polymeric
• Nucleic acids
• Peptides
• Hydrogels
• Micelles

19. Chemical vectors for gene delivery a current review on polymers, peptides and lipids containing histidine or imidazole as nucleic acids carriers

Midoux P, Pichon C, Yaouanc J-J, Jaffrès P-A

Non-viral nucleic acid delivery systems—lipoplexes, polyplexes, and lipopolyplexes—are limited mainly by poor endosomal escape. The review examines whether histidine- and imidazole-containing carriers can exploit the acidic endosomal environment to destabilize membranes and improve cytosolic delivery of DNA, mRNA…

• Polymeric
• Peptides
• Gene delivery
• Nucleic acids
• mRNA
• Transfection
• siRNA

20. Lipid-based Nanoparticles for Nucleic Acid 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…

• Nanoparticles
• siRNA
• DNA
• Lipid nanoparticle
• Polymeric
• Nucleic acids
• Gene delivery

21. Polymer-based siRNA delivery Perspectives on the fundamental and phenomenological distinctions from polymer-based DNA 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…

• Polymeric
• siRNA
• DNA
• Polyethylenimine
• Chitosan
• Nucleic acids
• Micelles

22. Cationic lipids, phosphatidylethanolamine and the intracellular delivery of polymeric, nucleic acid-based drugs (Review)

Hope Mj, Mui B, Ansell S, Ahkong Qf

Polymeric nucleic acid drugs—plasmid DNA, antisense oligonucleotides, and ribozymes—require protection from nucleases and efficient intracellular delivery to cytoplasm/nucleus. Viral vectors are efficient but immunogenic and safety-limited; non-viral cationic lipid systems are promising, but the mechanism of…

• Polymeric
• DNA
• Transfection
• Viral vectors
• Biodistribution
• Nucleic acids
• Endocytosis

23. Delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids via transferrin and transferrin receptors lipoplexes and other carriers

The transferrin receptor (TfR) is overexpressed on many cancer cells and is efficiently internalised, making it a useful target for delivering small-molecule drugs and nucleic acid therapeutics while reducing non-target effects. The review summarises TfR biology, Tf-lipoplex development, and therapeutic applications…

• Nucleic acids
• Polymeric
• DNA
• Transfection
• Liposomes
• siRNA
• mRNA