TY - CHAP

T1 - Organic electronic materials for gene delivery

AU - Hardy, John George

PY - 2016/1/13

Y1 - 2016/1/13

N2 - Gene therapy has the potential to treat various diseases by altering levels of protein expression, or correcting genetic mutations. A prerequisite of effective gene is the delivery of polynucleic acids (e.g., DNA, RNA) to a patient’s cells which can be achieved by a variety of means, including technological (e.g., electroporation), viruses (which are nature’s gene delivery vectors) or non-viral vectors (e.g., lipids, nanoparticles, polymers). The focus of this chapter is the use of organic electronic materials (i.e., fullerenes, graphenes and conjugated polymers) as non-viral gene delivery vectors and their potential for application as novel theranostic devices. These represent an exciting new class of non-viral vectors that are at the frontier of novel approaches towards gene therapy.

AB - Gene therapy has the potential to treat various diseases by altering levels of protein expression, or correcting genetic mutations. A prerequisite of effective gene is the delivery of polynucleic acids (e.g., DNA, RNA) to a patient’s cells which can be achieved by a variety of means, including technological (e.g., electroporation), viruses (which are nature’s gene delivery vectors) or non-viral vectors (e.g., lipids, nanoparticles, polymers). The focus of this chapter is the use of organic electronic materials (i.e., fullerenes, graphenes and conjugated polymers) as non-viral gene delivery vectors and their potential for application as novel theranostic devices. These represent an exciting new class of non-viral vectors that are at the frontier of novel approaches towards gene therapy.

KW - gene delivery

KW - organic electronics

KW - conducting polymers

KW - conjugated polymers

KW - fullerenes

KW - bucky balls

KW - Nanotubes

KW - graphene

M3 - Chapter

SP - 119

EP - 144

BT - Engineering of nanobiomaterials

A2 - Grumezescu, Alexandru

PB - Elsevier

ER -