Advances in Liposome-Based Targeted Gene Therapy of Cancer

Nonviral gene therapy is relatively safe, but the efficiency of nonviral plasmid-based therapy is low compared with a viral-mediated approach. To date, the US Food and Drug Administration has not approved a single human gene therapy as a drug. With that said, there has been significant success in the field of gene therapy. Below, we describe a brief history of gene therapy and summarize recent progress in nonviral gene therapy with regard to delivery system, vector design, and potential therapeutic genes for cancer therapy. In particular, we focus on the improvements in liposome composition for gene delivery, selective promoters to increase tissue specificity, and enhancement in therapeutic gene expression.