Cutaneous gene delivery

Chabri, F., et al. 2004. Microfabricated silicon microneedles for nonviral cutaneous gene delivery. 

Larregina, A.T. and L.D. Falo. 2000. Generating and regulating immune responses through cutaneous gene delivery. Hum Gene Ther 11 2301. 

In summary, while the field of gene therapy in general is attracting widespread interest at this time, real successes at the level of the skin (beyond those positive results obtained in various model systems) are few and far between. It is clear, then, that considerably more work needs to be done. Detailed, and current, overviews of the state-of-the-art in cutaneous gene delivery can be found in Refs.[ ° l... 

F. Chabri, K. Bouris, T. Jones, D. Barrow, A. Harm, C. Allender, K. Brain and J. Birchall, Microfabricated silicon microneedles for nonviral cutaneous gene delivery. Br. ]. Dermatol., 150, 869-877... 

Gene delivery to, or via, the skin has three principal objectives a) the treatment of primary cutaneous diseases and wounds, b) inducing skin cells to encode a protein which is subsequently released into the systemic circulation in a controlled fashion, and c) immunization. The first two instances involve a chronic delivery challenge, whereas immunization requires only acute exposure to the DNA involved. 

Rao KV, He YX, Ramaswamy K. Suppression of cutaneous inflammation by intradermal gene delivery. Gene Ther 2002 9 38-45. 

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