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Bacteria in gene therapy: bactofection versus alternative gene therapy

Gene Therapy volume 13, pages 101–105 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent advances in gene therapy can be attributed to improvements of gene delivery vectors. New viral and nonviral transport vehicles that considerably increase the efficiency of transfection have been prepared. However, these vectors still have many disadvantages that are difficult to overcome, thus, a new approach is needed. The approach of bacterial delivery could in the future be important for gene therapy applications. In this article we try to summarize the most important modifications that are used for the preparation of applied strains, difficulties that are related with bacterial gene delivery and the current use of bactofection in animal experiments and clinical trials. Important differences to the alternative gene therapy (AGT) are discussed. AGT resembles bacteria-mediated protein delivery, as the therapeutical proteins are produced not by host cells but by the bacteria in situ and the expression can be regulated exogenously. Although the procedure of bacterial gene delivery is far from being definitely solved, bactofection remains a promising technique for transfection in human gene therapy.

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Acknowledgements

We are greatful to L'ubomír Tomáška for the motivation to write this review. The authors are supported by Grant of the Comenius University 116/2004 and 117/2004 and the Grant Agency for Science and Technology APVT-20-003104.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BiomeD Research and Publishing Group, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Republic

    R Pálffy, R Gardlík, J Hodosy, M Behuliak, P Reško, J Radvánský & P Celec

  2. Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Republic

    R Pálffy, R Gardlík, M Behuliak, P Reško, J Radvánský & P Celec

  3. Institute of Pathophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Republic

    J Hodosy & P Celec

  4. Department of Animal Physiology and Ethology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia Republic

    J Hodosy

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  1. R Pálffy
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Pálffy, R., Gardlík, R., Hodosy, J. et al. Bacteria in gene therapy: bactofection versus alternative gene therapy. Gene Ther 13, 101–105 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302635

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