title: Carbon nanotubes as vectors for gene therapy: past achievements, present challenges and future goals.
abstract: Promising therapeutic and prophylactic effects have been achieved following advances in the gene therapy research arena, giving birth to the new generation of disease-modifying therapeutics. The greatest challenge that gene therapy vectors still face is the ability to deliver sufficient genetic payloads in order to enable efficient gene transfer into target cells. A wide variety of viral and non-viral gene therapy vectors have been developed and explored over the past 10years, including carbon nanotubes. In this review we will address the application of carbon nanotubes as non-viral vectors in gene therapy with the aim to give a perspective on the past achievements, present challenges and future goals. A series of important topics concerning carbon nanotubes as gene therapy vectors will be addressed, including the benefits that carbon nanotubes offer over other non-viral delivery systems. Furthermore, a perspective is given on what the ideal genetic cargo to deliver using carbon nanotubes is and finally the geno-pharmacological impact of carbon nanotube-mediated gene therapy is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Nanomedicine Lab, Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences and National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, AV Hill Building, Manchester M13 9PT, UK; UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kostarelos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D004247:DNA / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010957:Plasmids
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D004247:DNA
keywords: Antisense oligonucleotides; Aptamers; Carbon nanotubes; Gene therapy; Genetic cargo; Plasmid DNA; miRNA; siRNA