Nonviral delivery systems for gene delivery

Gene therapy is a highly effective therapeutic approach for the treatment and prevention of diseases, involving the delivery of functional DNA or RNA agents into targeted cells or tissues to cure or correct irregular gene expressions. This therapy could be achieved by various strategies, with viral and nonviral delivery systems being the main categories.

This collection focus on nonviral delivery. Nonviral delivery systems have significant advantages over viral systems in terms of convenience of use, ease of commercial scale-up, and lack of specific immunity. However, nonviral vectors are less efficient because the encoded transgene expression remains temporary. Therefore, while they exhibit tremendous potential for further clinical development and application, efforts must be made to overcome their limitations.

Notably, nonviral vectors like lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), exosomes, liposomes, and cationic polymers have demonstrated remarkable gene loading capacity and high levels of safety, practicality, and simplicity in preparation.

This collection welcomes submissions related but not limited to:

• Highlighting the advantages of nonviral delivery systems in clinical development or disease treatment
• The shortages or barriers hindering the development of nonviral delivery systems.
• Exploring medical application of nonviral vectors such as lipids, polymers, peptides, inorganic materials, exosome, or hybrid systems in disease treatment.