Kathryn F.A. Clancy and John G. Hardy* Pages 3614 - 3625 ( 12 )
Gene therapy may be capable of treating a variety of diseases, a prerequisite of which is the successful delivery of polynucleic acids (e.g., DNA, RNA) to a patient’s cells. Delivery can be achieved technologically (e.g., using electroporation), using viruses (natural gene delivery vectors) or non-viral vectors (e.g., lipids, nanoparticles, polymers). This article aims to give the reader an overview of the use of organic electronic materials (i.e., fullerenes, graphenes and conjugated polymers) as non-viral gene delivery vectors.
Organic electronics, carbon nanotubes, fullerene, graphene, conjugated polymer, gene delivery, gene therapy, biodegradable.
Department McGill Biomedical Engineering Department, Duff Medical Building, 3775 rue University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2B4, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science Institute, Faraday Building, Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Lancashire, LA1 4YB