Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Chen L, Hong W, Ren W, Xu T, Qian Z, He Z.
Synthetic nanoparticles face physiological barriers, RES clearance, and unintended biological interactions despite PEGylation and ligand grafting. Biological vectors—cell membranes, extracellular vesicles (EVs), and viruses—offer biocompatibility, biodegradability, immune evasion, and natural targeting. This review…
Read the article →Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Kim J, Eygeris Y, Gupta M, Sahay G.
mRNA vaccines are promising but naked mRNA is fragile, susceptible to enzymatic degradation, poorly taken up by cells due to electrostatic repulsion, and can trigger innate immune responses. Self-assembly offers a versatile approach to prepare delivery vehicles with customisable properties. The review discusses…
Read the article →Nature Reviews Materials2021ReviewDrug Delivery
Mandana T. Manzari, Yosi Shamay, Hiroto Kiguchi, Neal Rosen, Maurizio Scaltriti, And Daniel A. Heller
Precision medicine has transformed cancer therapy by enabling molecular profiling and optimised drug design, but clinical translation of many precision therapeutics is hindered by pharmacological limitations, including toxicities and drug resistance. Drug delivery materials can modulate a drug’s pharmacokinetics…
Read the article →Bioactive Materials2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Muyue Yang, Jipeng Li, Ping Gu, Xianqun Fan
Tumour microenvironment (TME) modulation is a promising strategy in cancer immunotherapy, but conventional immunotherapeutic agents suffer from limited drug retention in the TME, severe adverse events, and low response rates. Nanoparticles can prolong retention, enable targeted delivery to TME components, and convert…
Read the article →Nature Communications2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Han X, Zhang H, Butowska K, Swingle Kl, Alameh M-G, Weissman D, Mitchell Mj
RNA therapeutics—ASOs, siRNAs, miRNAs, mRNAs, and CRISPR-Cas9 sgRNAs—are limited by nuclease degradation, large size, and negative charge. Ionisable lipids are the key LNP component that condenses RNA, enables endosomal escape, and reduces toxicity. Since 2008, many ionisable lipids have been created, but the field…
Read the article →Bioengineering & Translational Medicine2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
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…
Read the article →Trends in Molecular Medicine2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Likely Citation: Swingle Kl, Hamilton Ag, Mitchell Mj
mRNA is degraded by nucleases and cannot easily cross cell membranes because of its large size and negative charge. Delivery therefore requires encapsulation in vehicles such as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to enable protein replacement, vaccines, and gene-editing applications. Onpattro was the first FDA-approved…
Read the article →Nature Reviews Materials2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Hou X, Zaks T, Langer R, Dong Y
mRNA has therapeutic potential for vaccines, protein replacement, cancer immunotherapy, cellular reprogramming, and genome editing, but it requires safe, effective, and stable delivery systems to protect it from degradation and enable cellular uptake and mRNA release. Lipid nanoparticles have entered the clinic for…
Read the article →Pharmaceutics2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Zak Mm, Zangi L
mRNA therapeutics are limited by innate immune activation, rapid RNase degradation, and inefficient delivery to target organs. Although LNPs are the only clinically approved RNA therapeutic carriers, most systemically delivered LNPs accumulate in the liver, so organ-specific delivery remains a major barrier for…
Read the article →ACS Nano.2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Rumiana Tenchov, Robert E. Bird, Allison E. Curtze, Qiongqiong Angela Zhou
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have become key delivery vehicles across pharmaceuticals, with renewed prominence as the delivery platform for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. The field lacks a broad, quantitative landscape of LNP research across liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, cationic…
Read the article →APL Bioengineering2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Matthew R. Aronson, Scott H. Medina, Michael J. Mitchell
Most clinically approved cancer therapies are potent and toxic small molecules limited by severe off-target toxicities and poor tumour-specific localisation. Liposomal encapsulation reduces toxicity, but reliance on passive targeting via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect leaves unresolved issues…
Read the article →Iranian Polymer Journal2021ReviewDrug Delivery
Self-healing polymers can repair damage and recover functionality, potentially extending the lifetime and safety of biomedical devices. Although self-healing hydrogels have been reviewed previously, papers focused specifically on their use in tissue engineering are scarce. This review summarises fabrication methods…
Read the article →Molecules2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Wan, Z.; Zheng, R.; Moharil, P.; Liu, Y.; Chen, J.; Sun, R.; Song, X.; Ao, Q
Cancer immunotherapy can produce durable clinical responses, but systemic delivery of immunostimulatory agents is limited by short half-lives, off-target toxicities (e.g., cytokine release syndrome), low response rates (10–30%), and poor efficacy in solid tumours. Polymeric micelles offer a biocompatible, modifiable…
Read the article →Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Chang D, Ma Y, Xu X, Xie J, Ju S
Polymeric nanoparticles are widely used for cancer theranostics because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and structural versatility, but conventional delivery still faces poor target specificity, uncontrolled release, and systemic toxicity. Stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoplatforms are proposed to…
Read the article →Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology2021ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Ashok B, Peppas Na, Wechsler Me
CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing holds major therapeutic promise, but in vivo delivery is arguably the most difficult barrier to clinical translation. Efficient, selective transport of editing components to target cells/tissues while minimising off-target effects remains unresolved. This review critiques lipid- and…
Read the article →Biochemical Pharmacology*, Volume 173, 2020, Article 113648 DOI/2020ReviewDrug Delivery
Anne Vejux, Dehbia Abed-Vieillard, Khadija Hajji, Amira Zarrouk, John J. Mackrill, Shubhrima Ghosh, Thomas Nury, Aline Yamminse, Mohamed Zaibih, Wafa Mihoubi, Habiba Bouchabi, Boubker Nasser, Yael Grosjean, Gérard Lizard
7-Ketocholesterol (7KC) and 7β-hydroxycholesterol (7β-OHC) are major auto-oxidation products of cholesterol that accumulate in cardiovascular disease, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), neurodegenerative disorders, and inflammatory bowel diseases. While their cytotoxicity (oxidative stress, organelle…
Read the article →Blood Advances2020ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Annika M. Frank, Angela H. Braun, Lea Scheib, Shivani Agarwal, Irene C. Schneider, Floriane Fusil, Severine Perian, Ugur Sahin, Frederic B. Thalheimer, Els Verhoeyen, Christian J. Buchholz
Conventional lentiviral vectors (LVs) are not selective for T cells and cannot efficiently transduce resting or minimally stimulated T lymphocytes, which limits their use for direct in vivo T-cell gene delivery. There is a need for vectors that can both target T cells specifically and activate them sufficiently to…
Read the article →Immunotherapy* (Future Science Group)2020ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Mona Yazdani, Mahmoud Reza Jaafari, Javad Verdi, Behrang Alani, Mahdi Noureddini, Ali Badiee
Melanoma is a poorly immunogenic and highly aggressive skin cancer with limited long-term survival for advanced disease. Dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccines are promising immunotherapies, but their efficacy relies on critical factors including DC maturation state and efficient antigen delivery. Nanoparticulate…
Read the article →Angewandte Chemie International Edition2020ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Shuangqian Yan, Zichao Luo, Zhenglin Li, Yu Wang, Jun Tao, Changyang Gong, Xiaogang Liu
Cancer immunotherapy has improved clinical outcomes, but few patients show adequate response rates and long-term responses, and systemic side effects remain common due to the dynamic nature of the immune system. Biomaterial-assisted immunotherapy is a promising approach to improve therapeutic efficacy and reduce side…
Read the article →PNAS* (*Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*)2020ReviewNon-viral Gene Delivery
Stephany Y. Tzeng, Kisha K. Patel, David R. Wilson, Randall A. Meyer, Kelly R. Rhodes, Jordan J. Green
Cancer immunotherapy has shown clinical success but remains limited by low response rates, high cost, and the need for ex vivo cell manipulation or prior knowledge of patient-specific tumour antigens. A broadly applicable, antigen-agnostic strategy that genetically reprograms tumour cells in situ—without ex vivo…
Read the article →2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Vitor Francisco, Catarina Rebelo, Artur Filipe Rodrigues, Josephine Blersch, Hugo Fernandes, Lino Ferreira
Non-viral vectors such as nanoparticles (NPs) show promise for RNA-based therapies, but suffer from limited cell targeting, poor cellular internalisation, and inadequate endolysosomal escape capacity. The field lacks a systematic, high-throughput approach to identify effective polymeric nanocarriers that can deliver…
Read the article →Acta Biomaterialia (Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.)2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Kelly R. Rhodes, Randall A. Meyer, Justin Wang, Stephany Y. Tzeng, Jordan J. Green
Regulatory T cell (Treg)-based therapeutics show promise for treating autoimmune diseases and preventing transplant rejection, but adoptive Treg transfer is expensive, complex, and difficult to implement. "Off-the-shelf" non-cellular alternatives that can induce endogenous Tregs in vivo are needed. Existing…
Read the article →Applied Materials Today2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Jing Zhao, Danping Lu, Sergio Moya, Haoying Yan, Miaojuan Qiu, Junzong Chen, Xincheng Wang, Yang Li, Haobo Pan, Guochuang Chen, Guocheng Wang
Bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) immunotherapy is a promising cancer treatment, but clinical application is limited by high production costs and short in vivo half-life of BiTE proteins. A gene delivery system that enables sustained in vivo expression of BiTE could overcome these limitations, but existing non-viral…
Read the article →ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Kwang-Soo Kim, Jun-Hyeok Han, Seung Hee Choi, Hae-Yun Jung, Joo Dong Park, Hee-Jung An, Seong-Eun Kim, Dong-Hyun Kim, Junsang Doh, Dong Keun Han, Ik-Hwan Kim, Wooram Park, Kyung-Soon Park
Natural killer (NK) cells are promising for cancer immunotherapy due to their lower risk of cytokine storm and graft-versus-host disease compared to T cell therapies. However, existing NK cell activation strategies—genetic engineering and cytokine treatment—are inefficient, expensive, and involve complex processing…
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