Bacterial and viral vectors as vaccine delivery vehicles for breast cancer therapy

Abstract

Breast cancer is the frequently diagnosed cancer among women and it is the most lethal malignancy in women globally. With one million cases every year, breast cancer is the fast-growing cancer type that has a high prevalence rate in young women. The limitations and undesirable side effects of conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy on malignant tumors necessitate the development of alternative therapeutic approaches. Gene therapy has emerged as a promising approach to cure a variety of malignant cancer types which involves the delivery of functional gene directly into the target tumor tissue. Efficient gene therapy approach relies on the effective delivery of therapeutic genes to the desired cell type. In this regard, biological and non-biological gene delivery vectors are used to protect the naked foreign DNA to mediate effective tissue entry of the desired gene of interest. In this review, the use of bacterial and viral vectors for breast cancer gene therapy was summarized.

Keywords: Anti-tumor therapy; Bacterial vector; Breast cancer; Cancer vaccine; Delivery vehicle.