Development and application of glycosylated particulate carriers for delivery of nucleic acid medicine

Abstract

Recently several systems including viral and non-viral carriers that can be used to transfer foreign genetic material into cells have been developed with the aim of enhancing gene transfer in vivo. Non-viral vectors are relatively easy to produce in clinically relevant quantities, and associated with fewer safety concerns. Furthermore, synthetic non-viral vectors provide flexibility in formulation design and can be tailored to interact efficiency with DNA cargo and the specific route of vector injection, and can enhance delivery to specific tissues or cells through incorporation of a targeting ligand. Applying cell-specific targeting technology to liposomes would improve in vivo gene transfection efficacy and reduce any unexpected side-effects. Among the various receptors, asialoglycoprotein receptors and mannose receptors are the most promising for gene targeting since they exhibit high affinity and are rapidly internalized. Receptor-mediated delivery systems are able to introduce foreign DNA into specific cell types in vivo. Our group succeeded in the development of glycosylated cationic liposomes for cell-selective targeting of plasmid DNA, siRNA, and NFκB decoy based on the optimization of physicochemical properties of glycosylated liposome complex. © 2008 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.