Development of cancer immune therapy by cell targeted nucleic acid delivery

Abstract

Increased understanding of the molecular pathological mechanisms of tumor, the progress of novel nucleic acids such as CpG oligonucleotides as a strong adjuvant or plasmid DNA(pDNA) encoding tumor-related antigen have provided an encouraging perspective for tumor immunotherapy. Since naked CpG oligonucleotide or pDNA has less therapeutic effect because of their less stability in the body and little accumulation to the immune cells as a target cells, a technology for the in vivo delivery of nucleic acids to immune cells has been necessary. In this review, we will introduce of the tumor immune mechanism and immune cells targeted delivery of nucleic acids for tumor immunotherapy using liposomes.