Nonviral Vector Systems for Cancer Gene Therapy

Abstract

There is increasing interest in nonviral systems for the delivery of genes for cancer therapy. Nonviral gene delivery has been considered an alternative to the intensely researched viral systems, although nonviral systems have several advantages. First, they are nonimmunogenic and therefore can be applied to the patient more than once; there is no limitation to the size of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that can be delivered, and the DNA vector can be engineered for specific cell targeting. Furthermore, they will offer easier synthesis and production as a pharmaceutical product. Unfortunately, nonviral vectors have poor transfection efficiency compared to viral vectors both in vitro and in vivo. However, with substantial efforts in the development of new transfection systems and better understanding of the barriers, the transfection efficiency and targeting of nonviral systems have improved significantly.