Cationic lipid-mediated gene transfer: Current concepts

Infectious disease, heart disease, cancer, autoimmunity, genetic defects and even traumatic injury may someday be treated with gene therapy and gene transfer strategies. The potential impact of this new technology on human disease has produced optimism and expectation for scientists and lay people alike. As more effort is directed at harvesting the potential of this technology it has become clear that the success or failure of gene therapy will hinge on our ability to manipulate and control the process of gene transfer in somatic cells. Today, somatic gene transfer is accomplished using either viral or non-viral gene transfer methods. The benefits and limitations of each system are aggressively being investigated to determine which characteristics are most compatible with safe and reliable gene transfer.