The features and shortcomings for gene delivery of current non-viral carriers

Since the viral vector for gene therapy has serious problems, including oncogenesity and other adverse effects, non-viral carriers have attracted a great deal of attention. Non-viral carriers are expected to achieve gene therapy without serious side effects. However, the most critical issue of gene delivery by non-viral carriers is the low-expression efficiencies of the desired gene. In order to apply non-viral carriers for gene therapy in practical clinical usage, further understanding of the cellular barriers against gene delivery is a prerequisite. Moreover, additional intelligent concepts for gene delivery are also needed. We will summarize the features and shortcomings of currently developed non-viral delivery systems. Especially, we will address the current progress of cationic lipids (lipoplex) and cationic polymers (polyplex) in terms of transfection efficiency. Furthermore, our group has developed a system that responds to the particular intracellular signals of target disease cells. We have named this gene delivery system a drug delivery system based on responses cellular signal (D-RECS). We will introduce this new concept of intelligent non-viral delivery system that our group recently developed.