The success of gene therapy as a revolutionary method to treat diseases relies on finding delivery systems that can efficiently transfer and express (transfect) DNA into target cells while producing reduced cytotoxic effects. Recently, pyridinium amphiphiles were shown to generate promising transfection systems that can fulfill these requirements. The impact of various structural characteristics (hydrophobic chain type, linkage type, counterion) on the transfection activity and cytotoxicity among various classes of pyridinium amphiphiles (detergents, lipids, gemini surfactants, lipophilic polycations) is discussed, emphasizing the most important structural parameters, efficient designs and formulations.
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