Utilising inorganic nanocarriers for gene delivery

Abstract

The delivery of genetic materials into cells to elicit cellular responses has been extensively studied by biomaterials scientists globally. Many materials such as lipids, peptides, viruses, synthetically modified cationic polymers and certain inorganic nanomaterials could be used to complex the negatively charged plasmids and deliver the formed package into cells. The recent literature on the delivery of genetic materials utilising inorganic nanoparticles is carefully examined in this review. We have picked out the most relevant references and concisely summarised the findings with illustrated examples. We further propose alternative approaches and suggest future pathways towards the practical use of multifunctional nanocarriers.

Virus-Inspired Self-Assembled Nanofibers with Aggregation-Induced Emission for Highly Efficient and Visible Gene Delivery

“…Traditional methods for transfection of long pDNAs have mainly focused on two strategies: One involves constructing the nanocarrier first and then attaching the plasmid to the surface of the carrier, 35–38 whereas the other uses a self-assembly approach to mix monodisperse polymers or small molecules with pDNA and then form gene/vector complexes in solution for transfection. 39–41 In this work, we found that, although TR4 has an amphiphilic structure, it exhibits good water solubility.…”

Latest Advances in Antibacterial Materials

“…Potentially, many of the current polymers synthesized for gene delivery can be converted to antibacterial compounds. 10,14,[16][17][18][19][20][21] Moreover, other macrocyclic hosts could be used to construct functional polypseudorotaxanes. -Poly-l-lysine hydrochloride, for example, is a natural polymer¯rst isolated from culture¯ltrates of Streptomyces albulus.…”

Preparation of bioactive β-tricalcium phosphate microspheres as bone graft substitute materials

“…CaP ceramics can be applied to bone repair in powder, microsphere, or bulk scaffold form [18][19][20][21]. Powder forms lack macropores and provide only limited ingrowth of cells, and conventional bulk ceramics are too brittle to cut into specialized shape to fit irregular bone defects.…”