Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore Effects in Apoptosis Induced by Polycationic Polymer Gene Delivery Vectors

摘要

Gene delivery has a great potential to alleviate many disorders. However, there are several hurdles that are preventing it from becoming a routine therapeutic practice. One of these is the problem of gene delivery. Viruses have an innate ability to deliver genetic cargo to target cells and have been used in past clinical trials, however, they have been shown to illicit unwanted immune responses, have a small capacity for carrying nucleic acids, and are difficult to modify. In response to the problems with viral vectors, several research groups have developed polycationic polymer gene delivery vectors. These vectors have been shown to be cytotoxic, but their exact mechanism of cytotoxicity remains unknown.