Vector Design and Drug Delivery: On the Road to Gene Therapy

Guest Editor: Ken Takeda                 Submit your original research here
Publication Date: Early 2009

The development of various new drug delivery strategies has been the subject of intense activity over the last decade. A dominant driving force has been the promise to deliver gene-related products (or magic bullets) for therapeutics based on for example, manipulation of gene expression. The recent background that sets the stage includes genome-wide sequencing, conditional knock-out/in animal models, anti-sense and siRNA methodologies. Understandably, both academic researchers and the drug industry have fueled the search for efficient and safe delivery methods that are prerequisite for gene therapy.

In this themed section, a series of timely reviews will cover the past and current status of major approaches to deliver gene-related products. These invited reviews span viral and lipid vectorisation techniques, peptide delivery methods, antibodies and intrabodies, other nanovectors like carbon nanotubes and biophysical methods like electroporation. The intent is to bring together a body of information perhaps not familiar to the community of general pharmacologists and to highlight the continuing evolution of this fast-moving field.

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