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Review
. 2016 Winter;15(Suppl):3-17.

Barriers to Liposomal Gene Delivery: from Application Site to the Target

Mostafa Saffari  1 , Hamid Reza Moghimi  2 , Crispin R Dass  3
Affiliations
Review

Barriers to Liposomal Gene Delivery: from Application Site to the Target

Mostafa Saffari et al. Iran J Pharm Res. 2016 Winter.

Abstract

Gene therapy is a therapeutic approach to deliver genetic material into cells to alter their function in entire organism. One promising form of gene delivery system (DDS) is liposomes. The success of liposome-mediated gene delivery is a multifactorial issue and well-designed liposomal systems might lead to optimized gene transfection particularly in vivo. Liposomal gene delivery systems face different barriers from their site of application to their target, which is inside the cells. These barriers include presystemic obstacles (epithelial barriers), systemic barriers in blood circulation and cellular barriers. Epithelial barriers differ depending on the route of administration. Systemic barriers include enzymatic degradation, binding and opsonisation. Both of these barriers can act as limiting hurdles that genetic material and their vector should overcome before reaching the cells. Finally liposomes should overcome cellular barriers that include cell entrance, endosomal escape and nuclear uptake. These barriers and their impact on liposomal gene delivery will be discussed in this review.

Keywords: Cellular uptake and release; Degradation; Drug delivery; Epithelial barriers; Gene therapy; Liposomes; Targeting.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic structure of liposomes showing different compositions (129
Figure 2
Figure 2
Possible pathways and barriers of liposomal gene delivery at cellular and subcellular levels
Figure 3
Figure 3
Tumor growth profile of different antisense (As) or scrambled (Sc) oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) liposomal formulations in the presence or absence of urea in nude mice in comparison to untreated control animal. Data are mean ± standard error (n = 3). (From Ref. 119, with permission
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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