New insights into the physical properties of different forms of DNA could help to improve gene therapy, chemists in Spain and India say. Gene therapy aims to cure disease by inserting functional genes into the DNA of living cells, but delivering the DNA into the cell remains a stumbling block. Emilio Aicar, Santanu Bhattacharya and colleagues say that their findings can explain why some types of DNA can transfect cells more efficiently than others.
Gene therapy was pioneered using viruses to deliver DNA into cells. However, viral vectors have a number of drawbacks which limit their use for in vivo therapeutic gene delivery, not least their interactions with the host organism's immune system. Synthetic delivery vehicles might be able to get around these problems.
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