Viral and nonviral delivery systems for gene delivery

Gene therapy is the process of introducing foreign genomic materials into host cells to elicit a therapeutic benefit. Although initially the main focus of gene therapy was on special genetic disorders, now diverse diseases with different patterns of inheritance and acquired diseases are targets of gene therapy. There are 2 major categories of gene therapy, including germline gene therapy and somatic gene therapy. Although germline gene therapy may have great potential, because it is currently ethically forbidden, it cannot be used; however, to date human gene therapy has been limited to somatic cells. Although numerous viral and nonviral gene delivery systems have been developed in the last 3 decades, no…