Nonviral nucleic acid delivery systems: specific features of polymeric carriers

Gene therapy has found wide use in the prevention and treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. Meanwhile, the development of formulations providing effective and targeted delivery of nucleic acids has been and remains a challenging interdisciplinary task. Polymeric systems for the delivery of these biomolecules have a great potential for enhancing the transfection efficiency owing to their ability to efficiently bind nucleic acids and facilitate the endosomal escape of genetic material, as well as because of high variability of their structure and properties. This review discusses the principles of nonviral delivery of mRNA, plasmid DNA, and siRNA that are common to low- and high-molecular-weight carriers. The unique features of cationic polymers are considered and growth points for further development of polymeric transfection reagents are identified. The bibliography includes 333 references.