Vector delivery, gene expression studies

A number of studies have indicated that CAR is the m or host cell determinant of adenovirus infection in vivo. CAR has been shown to be highly expressed in the heart (Tomko et at, 1997), and this observation is consistent with adenovirus-mediated gene delivery to cardiac tissue in vivo (Rosengart et at, 1999). GAR expression has been reported to be low or absent on primary human fibroblasts (Hidaka et al., 1999) and most peripheral blood cells (Leon et al., 1998 Huang et al., 1997), and these cell types have proved difficult to transduce with adenovirus vectors. In more recent studies, peripheral blood lymphocytes derived from transgenic mice expressing human GAR were shown to permit efficient adenovirus-mediated gene delivery (Schmidt et al, 2000). 

There is relatively little physical understanding of why certain preparation conditions of nonviral gene vectors generate better gene expression than others [68]. This deficiency has hindered the development of nonviral gene delivery vectors, since relatively few reports quantitatively evaluate DNA complex structure and composition, especially as it relates to gene delivery efficiency. Some structural and physical characteristics, including shape, size, and zeta potential, have been studied for various synthetic DNA delivery systems and have, in some instances, been related to transfection efficiency. 

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