Every entry summarises what the study set out to test, what it found and why it changes how we design delivery systems. Browse research and reviews or search the collection.
586 articles
Showing 217–240 of 269 articles
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…
Read the articleSatyajit Mayor, Robert G. Parton, Julie G. Donaldson
Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) has long been the dominant paradigm for cellular uptake, but many endocytic pathways operate without clathrin. These clathrin-independent endocytic (CIE) pathways are increasingly recognised as distinct routes with different cargo selectivity, molecular machinery, kinetics, and…
Read the articleDa Ma
siRNA-based gene therapy is a promising biotechnology for treating cancer and other diseases, but safe and efficient delivery is essential. Nanoparticle-mediated delivery must overcome multiple biological barriers, and endosomal escape is a critical rate-limiting barrier: nanoparticles are typically internalised via…
Read the articleSingh Ms, Bhaskar S.
Cancer immunotherapy can induce specific antitumor immunity, control metastases, and provide immunological memory, but faces barriers including immunosuppressive tumour microenvironments and poor delivery of immunomodulators. Nanocarriers offer a versatile way to deliver antigens, adjuvants, cytokines, antibodies…
Read the articleYin 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 articleTorrecilla J, Rodríguez-Gascón A, Solinís Má, Del Pozo-Rodríguez A
Naked RNAi molecules are rapidly degraded by serum nucleases and cannot readily cross cell membranes because of their negative charge. Effective delivery systems are therefore required to exploit RNAi for antiviral therapy. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are attractive because they are relatively safe, simple to produce…
Read the articleSlavomíra Doktorovová, Eliana B. Souto, Amélia Maria Silva
Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) were developed as alternative colloidal carriers with better stability and tolerability than polymeric nanoparticles. However, in vitro toxicity data were scattered across many cell lines, assays, exposure times, concentrations, and formulations…
Read the articleLee, 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 articleJing 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 articleTam Yyc, Chen S, Cullis Pr
siRNA has broad therapeutic potential, but clinical translation is limited by rapid nuclease degradation, poor accumulation in target tissues, and inability to cross cell membranes to reach the cytoplasm. Lipid nanoparticles containing ionisable amino lipids are the leading systemic delivery system for siRNA, with…
Read the articleEl-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 articleGan L, Wang J, Jiang M, Bartlett H, Ouyang D, Eperjesi F, Liu J, Gan Y
Topical ocular drug delivery is limited by tear turnover, corneal and conjunctival barriers, efflux transporters, and poor water solubility of many drug candidates. Lipid-based nanocarriers may improve ocular bioavailability, prolong preocular residence, enhance corneal penetration, and provide controlled release…
Read the articleRagelle, H.; Vandermeulen, G.; Préat, V
Chitosan is attractive for siRNA delivery because it is cationic, biocompatible, biodegradable, mucoadhesive, and permeation-enhancing. However, native chitosan suffers from low solubility at physiological pH, poor buffering capacity, instability in biological fluids, and insufficient endosomal escape, limiting…
Read the articleNot Fully Listed In The Supplied File; Corresponding Authors Are Isaac Ojea ([email protected]) And Victor Puntes ([email protected])
Viral vectors give high gene-transfer efficiency but carry risks of immunogenicity, oncogenic transformation, limited cargo capacity, and manufacturing difficulty. Nonviral nanocarriers are safer and cheaper alternatives, but they still suffer from low transfection efficiency because of extracellular and…
Read the articleVickers Kc, Remaley At
Extracellular miRNAs are unusually stable in plasma and their circulating levels change with disease, making them promising biomarkers. They are associated with lipid-based carriers—exosomes, microvesicles, apoptotic bodies, and lipoproteins—as well as lipid-free proteins. Whether these carriers mediate functional…
Read the articleZhang 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 articleSamal, S. K.; Dash, M.; Van Vlierberghe, S.; Kaplan, D. L.; Chiellini, E.; Van Blitterswijk, C.; Moroni, L.; Dubruel, P
Cationic polymers are widely studied as non-viral gene delivery vectors, but their therapeutic potential extends well beyond gene delivery. This review addresses the need for a broader overview of cationic polymers — their synthesis, modification, bioactive properties, architectures, and applications in drug…
Read the articleFabienne 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…
Read the articleWei-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 articleChou Lyt, Ming K, Chan Wcw.
Nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used as contrast agents, therapeutics, and delivery vehicles, but their effective delivery into cells and to specific subcellular organelles remains a major challenge. The review addresses fundamental barriers to intracellular NP delivery—plasma membrane, endosomal entrapment…
Read the articleTorchilin 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 articleCationic 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 articleDaniel 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 articleKim, T.-I.; Kim, S. W
Bioreducible polymers containing disulfide linkages are attractive gene-delivery carriers because they are stable in the oxidizing extracellular environment but degrade rapidly in the reducing intracellular cytosol via thiol–disulfide exchange, triggered by high glutathione (GSH) levels. This review addresses the…
Read the articleWe co-develop nanocarrier and biosensing programmes with pharma, biotech and academic groups — from target selection through scale-up.
