Cationic liposome systems in gene therapy.
Cationic liposomes are well known to assist the delivery of genes and other nucleic acids to cells in vitro. This has held out the tantalizing possibility that cationic liposome systems could play a major role as vectors (ie, gene delivery vehicles) for the delivery of therapeutic genes and/or other nucleic acids into diseased cells and organs of patients, in order to treat disease by gene therapy. How realistic is this? Certainly, a number of cationic liposome systems have been used to mediate the delivery of nucleic acids in vivo with gene therapy applications in mind. However, this approach is still fraught with technical problems and further progress in basic research will be necessary if cationic liposomes are to be a gene therapy vector of the future.
Miller
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Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, Department of Chemistry, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AY, UK. a.miller@ic.ac.uk