Abstract
The two major somatic gene transfer approaches employ viral or nonviral vectors. Viral vectors have been shown to be efficient in delivering DNA to cells in vitro and in vivo. However, they are deficient in several areas, For example, adenoviral vectors induce a host immune response, rendering these vectors ineffective in repeated applications. Alternatively, poor transfection efficiency is the major drawback of non-viral vector. If the transgfection efficiency can be improved, the non-viral vectors would have potential of becoming the vectors for choice for gene therapy. We revealed that addition of ligand or lectin to liposome yields large enhancement of transfection efficiency in human lung cancer cells. These results indicated ligand or lectin-facilitated transfection is an efficient gene delivery strategy. Employment of cell type-specific ligands or lectins may allow for efficient cell type-specific gene targeting.
