Current Gene Therapy - Volume 13, Issue 5, 2013

Radiation-induced intestinal injury is a common complication in radiotherapy for solid organ malignancies in abdomen or pelvis. However, currently there are no approved medical countermeasures for radiation-induced intestinal injury. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new treatments for radiation-induced intestinal injury. In the present study, we demonstrated that bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) an Read More

Dysfunction of peripheral nerves due to metabolic, toxic, infectious, or genetic causes is a common and debilitating syndrome resulting in sensory loss. Peripheral neuropathies are one of the most widespread neurological disorders, affecting nearly 20 million people in the United States alone. Pharmacologic treatment for peripheral neuropathies is one of the most challenging fields in the clinical research. Sensory neurons are Read More

Understanding the cellular target structure and thereby proposing the best delivery system to achieve sustained release of drugs has always been a significant area of focus in biomedical research for translational benefits. Specific targeting of the receptors expressed on the target cell represents an effective strategy for increasing the pharmacological efficacy of the administered drug. Liposomes offer enhanced conve Read More

Recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (rAAV) have now been used in several clinical trials to treat a variety of diseases, and are currently the preferred choice of many investigators in the field, due to both their low pathogenicity and immunogenicity compared with other viral vectors, as well as localized long-term gene expression, despite their limitations of DNA size packaging and speed of expression. Recently, a numbe Read More

Our aim was to specifically transfer the cytosine deaminase (CD) and thymidine kinase (TK) genes into mucin 1 (MUC1)-positive leukemia cells by anti-MUC1 antibody directed infection of replication-defective lentivirus and to evaluate the targeted cytotoxicity of double suicide genes to leukemia. The target gene vector (containing CD and TK) and envelope (containing GFP and anti-MUC1) and packaging plasmids were c Read More

The delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) is a promising approach to silencing gene expression aimed at treating infections, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and various other disorders. Recent progress in this area has been achieved with nanodevices possessing multiple properties and assembled with new, biodegradable, synthetic polymers and polysaccharides. Different synthetic routes and multiple stra Read More

Sixteen years after Graham and coworkers described the most used system for generating helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAd) vectors, production systems have evolved considerably, and most resulting preparations have titres of 1 × 1013 IU/ml (infection units/ml) and very low helper contamination levels (<0.1%). These advances in production, as well as the attractive characteristics of these vectors (large inser Read More