Librería Samer Atenea
Librería Aciertas (Toledo)
Kálamo Books
Librería Perelló (Valencia)
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Donde los libros
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
The goal of gene transfer is protein expression. a process brought about by the insertion of a gene coding for a foreign protein into target cells resulting in the synthesis of the foreign protein For gene therapy, a tmnsferred therapeutic gene must be expressed at a level beneficial for the patient. This chapter provides an introductory overview of the rapidly evolving field of non-viral approaches for gene delivery to rnarnrnalian cells. Although currently there are fewer ongoing clinical trials using non-viral approaches than those using viral based systems, the number of non-viral trials is increasing. The long range goal of some research groups is the development of a genetically engineered artificial virus targeted to specific cells in the human body. An arurual conference, organized by Cambridge Healthtech Institute entitled 'Artificial Self-Assembling Systems for Gene Transfer', brings together researchers interested in this field [1]. Assembly of an artificial virus is very complex; other research groups aim to develop simpler delivery systems consisting of a plasmid combined with delivery agents. Viral-based systems are very successful for gene delivery, but despite their successes, viral-based systems have some geneml limitations and system-specific limitations. When employing a viml-based system, the following limitations should be considered: • size limitation of the inserted gene due to packaging constraints (e. g. adenovirus, retrovirus) . • potential tumorigenesis (e. g. retrovirus) • potential for insertional mutagenesis (greater than plasmid based systems) • potential imrnunogenicity (e. g.
