Trojan horse at cellular level for tumor gene therapies

Abstract

Among innovative strategies developed for cancer treatments, gene therapies stand of great interest despite their well-known limitations in targeting, delivery, toxicity or stability. The success of any given gene-therapy is highly dependent on the carrier efficiency. New approaches are often revisiting the mythic trojan horse concept to carry therapeutic nucleic acid, i.e. DNAs, RNAs or small interfering RNAs, to pathologic tumor site. Recent investigations are focusing on engineering carrying modalities to overtake the above limitations bringing new promise to cancer patients. This review describes recent advances and perspectives for gene therapies devoted to tumor treatment, taking advantage of available knowledge in biotechnology and medicine.

Keywords: AAV; Ad; CTGVT; EGFR; EPCs; Exosome; GAOVT; GCV; HRE; HSV-TK; Liposome; MDR1; MSCs; NK; Nucleic acid delivery; OVs; PAMAM; PEG; PEI; PLL; PU-PEI; Progenitor cell; QD; SPION; TERT; THL; TK; TRAIL; Trojan Horse Liposome; Tumor targeting; VEGF; Virus; adeno-associated viruses; adenovirus; cancer targeting gene-viro-therapy; endothelial precursor cells; epidermal growth factor receptor; ganciclovir; gene armed oncolytic virus therapy; herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase; highly branched polyamidoamine; hypoxia responsive element; mesenchymal stem cells; multi drug resistance protein; natural killers; oncolytic viruses; poly(L-lysine); poly(ethylenimine); polyethylene glycol; polyurethane-short branch polyethylenimine; quantum dots; superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles; telomerase reverse transcriptase; thymidine kinase; tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; vascular endothelial growth factor.