Introduction:
Gene therapy has emerged out as a promising therapeutic pave for the treatment
of genetic and acquired diseases. Gene transfection into target cells using naked DNA is a simple
and safe approach which has been further improved by combining vectors or gene carriers. Both viral
and non-viral approaches have achieved a milestone to establish this technique, but non-viral approaches
have attained a significant attention because of their favourable properties like less immunotoxicity
and biosafety, easy to produce with versatile surface modifications, etc. Literature is rich in evidences
which revealed that undoubtedly, non–viral vectors have acquired a unique place in gene therapy
but still there are number of challenges which are to be overcome to increase their effectiveness and
prove them ideal gene vectors.
Conclusion:
To date, tissue specific expression, long lasting gene expression system, enhanced gene
transfection efficiency has been achieved with improvement in delivery methods using non-viral vectors.
This review mainly summarizes the various physical and chemical methods for gene transfer in vitro
and in vivo.