Nanoparticles for Imaging and Non-viral Gene Therapy

Gene therapy has not been investigated as much as pharmacotherapy because of immunogenic issues when a virus was used as a gene delivery vector. Despite the challenges, gene therapy still has attractive aspects. It has less side effects and is more target-specific compared to pharmacotherapy, and it also has potential for generic disease treatment or personalized medicine. Therefore, it would be truly beneficial if safe and reliable vectors are used and targeted for area of interest. Interest in multifunctional nanomedicine for diagnostics and therapeutics has been increasing. For this reason, non-viral gene delivery has been studied, combined with molecular imaging to visualize targeting. In this review, complex nanoparticle systems designed for molecular imaging and gene delivery are discussed. There are design criteria which need to be considered for the nanoparticle complex systems. The criteria are as follows: i) the nanoparticle complex should be stable; ii) it should have efficient targeting capability; iii) controlled release of genes should be available; iv) molecular imaging should be possible; and lastly, v) there should be noticeable therapeutic efficacy. Examples on nanoparticle complex which meet these criteria are described in the review.