Nanostructures for Novel Therapy

Chapter 26

Innovative nonviral vectors for small-interfering RNA delivery and therapy

Danielle C. Arruda^**

Céline Hoffmann^*

Christine Charrueau^*

Pascal Bigey^*

Virginie Escriou^**    CNRS UMR 8258; INSERM UMR-S 1022; Paris Descartes University; Chimie ParisTech; Paris, France^**    Minas Gerais Federal University, Belo Horizonte, Brasil

Abstract

Since the discovery of RNA interference by Fire et al. (1998) (Fire, A., Xu, S., Montgomery, M.K., Kostas, S.A., Driver, S.E., Mello, C.C., 1998. Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 391, 806–811), small-interfering RNA, or siRNA, has become an indisputable tool for specifically silencing a target gene. The main obstacle for the development of siRNA ...