Antisense strategies and non-viral gene therapy for cancer

Abstract

Effective gene therapy for cancer remains an elusive goal, even after more than a decade of intensive research. There has been, however, tremendous progress in the development of increasingly sophisticated non-viral (or synthetic) delivery vectors for local and systemic administration of nucleic acids. Recent clinical data has also indicated the feasibility of using antisense oligonucleotides to inhibit inappropriately expressed or mutated genes in human cancers. The purpose of this review is to provide an update of the patent literature on the development of non-viral approaches for cancer gene therapy. In particular, patents on lipoplexes and polyplexes for delivery of therapeutic genes and antisense oligonucleotides are reviewed. The diverse range of antisense strategies being developed and recent clinical data are also highlighted.

• antisense
• cancer
• cancer gene therapy
• clinical trials
• delivery
• gene therapy
• lipoplexes
• liposomes
• non-viral
• oligonucleotides
• plasmid DNA
• polyethylenimine (PEI)
• poly(L-lysine) (PLL)
• polyplexes
• synthetic
• tumour
• vector