Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
siRNA delivery: from basics to therapeutic applications
The chance to selectively intervene and stop the development of any gene-dependent disease in different organs and pathologies makes siRNA an ideal therapeutic agent. However, serious issues should be addressed before the real therapeutic use of siRNA. The poor pharmacokinetic properties of siRNA, its short half-life, its low in vivo stability, its fast elimination by kidney filtration and its low transfection efficiency complicate the use of siRNA as a therapeutic molecule. In this review, we will describe the latest and most advanced approaches and strategies undertaken to address these limitations and improve siRNA delivery and its gene silencing efficacy as well as the prospects for its therapeutic applications.