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Focused Review
Vector-Mediated Cancer Gene Therapy: An Overview
Prem Seth
volume 4 | issue 5
may 2005Pages: 512-517
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In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in developing gene therapy approaches for the treatment of cancer. The two events that have permitted the formulation of concept of cancer gene therapy are the new understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying oncogenesis, and the development of the DNA-delivery vehicles, or vectors. Many approaches to cancer gene therapy have been proposed, and several viral and non-viral vectors have been utilized. The purpose of this review article is to describe the various strategies of cancer gene therapy (transfer of tumor suppressor genes, suicide genes-enzyme/prodrug approach, inhibition of dominant oncogenes, immunomodulation approaches, expression of molecules that affect angiogenesis, tumor invasion and metastasis, chemosensitization and radiosensitization approaches, and chempoprotection of stem cells). The chapter also reviews the commonly used vectors (retroviral vectors, adenoviral vectors, adeno-associated viral vectors, pox viruses, herpes simplex viruses, HIV- vectors, non-viral vectors, and targetable vectors) for cancer gene therapy. Some of the important issues in cancer gene therapy, and the potential future directions are also being discussed.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDFIf the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.