Topical Gene Therapy
October 9, 2012 | Terry Sharrer
Gene therapy has relied on multiple delivery “vehicles”—liposomes, peptides, viruses, et al—to place genetic material inside cells, either in the cytoplasm or nucleus. Investigators at Northwestern University now have a strategy of immobilizing small interfering RNA’s on gold nanoparticles, and blending these conjugates into a commercial moisturizing cream, which, in effect, becomes a gene therapy salve for skin cancers. Tests have shown that the particles penetrate to the basal layer of the epidermis. MORE