A titratable two-step transcriptional amplification strategy for targeted gene therapy based on ligand-induced intramolecular folding of a mutant human estrogen receptor

Hydrodynamic Delivery: Characteristics, Applications, and Technological Advances

The principle of hydrodynamic delivery was initially used to develop a method for the delivery of plasmids into mouse hepatocytes through tail vein injection and has been expanded for use in the delivery of various biologically active materials to cells in various organs in a variety of animal species through systemic or local injection, resulting in significant advances in new applications and technological development. The development of regional hydrodynamic delivery directly supports successful gene delivery in large animals, including humans. This review summarizes the fundamentals of hydrodynamic delivery and the progress that has been made in its application. Recent progress in this field offers tantalizing prospects for the development of a new generation of technologies for broader application of hydrodynamic delivery.

Translational Advances of Hydrofection by Hydrodynamic Injection

Hydrodynamic gene delivery has proven to be a safe and efficient procedure for gene transfer, able to mediate, in murine model, therapeutic levels of proteins encoded by the transfected gene. In different disease models and targeting distinct organs, it has been demonstrated to revert the pathologic symptoms and signs. The therapeutic potential of hydrofection led different groups to work on the clinical translation of the procedure. In order to prevent the hemodynamic side effects derived from the rapid injection of a large volume, the conditions had to be moderated to make them compatible with its use in mid-size animal models such as rat, hamster and rabbit and large animals as dog, pig and primates. Despite the different approaches performed to adapt the conditions of gene delivery, the results obtained in any of these mid-size and large animals have been poorer than those obtained in murine model. Among these different strategies to reduce the volume employed, the most effective one has been to exclude the vasculature of the target organ and inject the solution directly. This procedure has permitted, by catheterization and surgical procedures in large animals, achieving protein expression levels in tissue close to those achieved in gold standard models. These promising results and the possibility of employing these strategies to transfer gene constructs able to edit genes, such as CRISPR, have renewed the clinical interest of this procedure of gene transfer. In order to translate the hydrodynamic gene delivery to human use, it is demanding the standardization of the procedure conditions and the molecular parameters of evaluation in order to be able to compare the results and establish a homogeneous manner of expressing the data obtained, as ‘classic’ drugs.

Image-Guided Hydrodynamic Gene Delivery: Current Status and Future Directions

Hydrodynamics-based delivery has been used as an experimental tool to express transgene in small animals. This in vivo gene transfer method is useful for functional analysis of genetic elements, therapeutic effect of oligonucleotides, and cancer cells to establish the metastatic cancer animal model for experimental research. Recent progress in the development of image-guided procedure for hydrodynamics-based gene delivery in large animals directly supports the clinical applicability of this technique. This review summarizes the current status and recent progress in the development of hydrodynamics-based gene delivery and discusses the future directions for its clinical application.

Hydrodynamic delivery

Hydrodynamic delivery (HD) is a broadly used procedure for DNA and RNA delivery in rodents, serving as a powerful tool for gene/protein drug discovery, gene function analysis, target validation, and identification of elements in regulating gene expression in vivo. HD involves a pressurized injection of a large volume of solution into a vasculature. New procedures are being developed to satisfy the need for a safe and efficient gene delivery in clinic. Here, we summarize the fundamentals of HD, its applications, and future perspectives for clinical use.

Molecular-genetic imaging of cancer

Molecular-genetic imaging of cancer using nonviral delivery systems has great potential for clinical application as a safe, efficient, noninvasive tool for visualization of various cellular processes including detection of cancer, and its attendant metastases. In recent years, significant effort has been expended in overcoming technical hurdles to enable clinical adoption of molecular-genetic imaging. This chapter will provide an introduction to the components of molecular-genetic imaging and recent advances on each component leading to safe, efficient clinical applications for detecting cancer. Combination with therapy, namely, generating molecular-genetic theranostic constructs, will provide further impetus for clinical translation of this promising technology.