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Non-viral gene delivery systems are promising as they avoid many problems of viral gene therapy by having increased design flexibility, high safety, large DNA cargo capacity, and ease of manufacture. Here, we describe the use of polymeric vectors, in particular biodegradable poly(β-ami ...

Transfection is a powerful non-viral technology used to deliver foreign nucleic acids into eukaryotic cells, and is the method of choice for a variety of applications including studying the functional role of particular genes and the proteins they code for. By over-expressing genes to prod ...

DNA vector-based short hairpin RNA (shRNA) as a means of effecting RNA interference (RNAi) is a promising mechanism for the precise disruption of gene expression to achieve a therapeutic effect. The clinical usage of shRNA therapeutics in cancer is limited by obstacles related to effective d ...

Macromolecular drugs hold great promise as novel therapeutics of several major disorders, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, their use is limited by lack of efficient, safe, and specific delivery strategies. Successful development of such strategies requires int ...

Positron emission tomography (PET) examinations with F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) provide detailed information about the glucose-like metabolism in tissue. It is generally accepted that FDG reflects the viability of tumour cells. The kinetics of FDG is modulated by several ge ...

The delivery of macromolecules into the central nervous system (CNS) via the blood stream is seriously limited by the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Noninvasive, transient, and local image-guided blood–brain barrier disruption (BBBD) can be accomplished using focused ultrasound exp ...

Drug delivery by inhalation is routine for the treatment of local pulmonary conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Only recently, though, has the inhalation route been considered for administering drugs for systemic diseases. The pulm ...

Biological barriers, typically, represented by epithelial tissues are the main hindrance against uncontrolled uptake of a variety of substances. However, the delivery across a biological barrier is a crucial factor in the development of drugs. As the permeability of macromolecular ...

Transfer of exogenous material into the cytosol of cells is one of the main challenges in drug delivery. We present a novel physical approach for efficient incorporation of macromolecules into living cells, based on exposing them to a train of unipolar electric field pulses, possessing much l ...

To avoid long-double-stranded-RNA-dependent interferon response, short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are widely used for RNA interference (RNAi) in mammalian cells. siRNA-based RNAi, however, may not be readily available for the large-scale gene silencing essential for system ...

Isolated through combinatorial libraries by an iterative in vitro selection process, small single-stranded nucleic acid compounds, named aptamers, have been developed as high-affinity ligands for a variety of targets, ranging from small chemical compounds to large proteins. In t ...

This chapter describes a method for establishing short-term expiant cultures of esophageal mucosa. Adverse effects produced by exposure to radiation or test compounds can be detected as an inhibition of cell outgrowth.

The safety assessment of new chemicals and pharmaceuticals and the incorporation of these data into a human risk assessment package requires a large number of expensive, regulated tests in animal species including, in some cases, nonhuman primates (1–3).

The reader is referred to the previous chapter in which the background and rationale for monitoring hypothalamic function in vitro is discussed.

Together, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland form the functional unit called the neuroendocrine system. For the purposes of introducing this system, therefore, the two will be considered together, although the methods for assessing their function will be considered separate ...

The technique described in this chapter enables the culturing of thyroid cells without loss of differentiation and medium change. It is potentially useful for the long-term study of drug effects on the thyroid gland. Human thyroid cells obtained during surgery can be maintained in culture f ...

Cultured astrocytes provide a valuable and important system for predictive testing and mechanistic analysis of neurotoxic compounds. The culture procedures allow relatively rapid assessment of different chemicals or their metabolites over a range of concentrations, using c ...

In this test, kidney-derived cells are cultured in the presence of test compounds whose cytotoxicity is then determined by the Neutral Red method, and serves as an indicator of potential nephrotoxicity (1). Healthy LLC-RK1 cells (an established cell line, ATCC CCL) maintained in culture cont ...

The development of in vitro models that preserve the functional characteristics of the normal thyroid gland has been a challenging objective of recent experimental thyroidology. A major aim of such endeavors has been to facilitate the development of simple, reliable, reproducible te ...

Macrophage cells in culture may be exposed to particulate matter, and resultant effects on cell viability are determined by vital dye exclusion and enzyme leakage assays.