Gene delivery system surface binding systems

Gene delivery systems can distribute plasmids to the desired target cells, after which the plasmid is internalized into the cell by a number of mechanisms, such as adsorptive endocytosis, receptor-mediated endocytosis, micropinocytosis, caveolae-mediated endocytosis and phagocytosis (see Section 1.3.3.2). The intracellular fate of plasmids depends on the means by which they are internalized and translocated to the cytoplasms and then to the nucleus. In coated-pit endocytosis, DNA complexes first bind to the cell surface, then migrate to clathrin-coated pits about 150 ran in diameter and are internalized from the plasma membrane to form coated vesicles. 

For cell-specific delivery, the receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) systems possessed by various cell types would be useful, and a number of gene delivery systems have been developed to introduce foreign DNA into specific cells using this the RME approach [37, 38]. Hepatocytes exclusively express large numbers of high-affmi-ty cell-surface receptors that can bind asia-... 

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