ABSTRACT
Introduction Gene therapy strategies consist in the delivery of genetic material in a given organ or cell type.
These strategies require efficient and relevant transfer vectors that are usually classified into two main groups: viral and nonviral vectors. Viral vectors, replicating or not, are derived from various viruses (adenoviruses, retroviruses, poxviruses, parvoriruses, herpexviruses) in which all or part of the viral genome has been replaced by a transgene and all the regulatory sequences required for its expression in the target cells. Nonviral gene transfer usually consists in the association of naked DNA with chemically defined compounds such as liposomes, which increase the efficiency of DNA penetration across the cell membrane.1 Bacteria can be considered as an alternative vector for gene therapy. The transfer of plasmid DNA from bacteria to a variety of recipient cells including yeast2 and plants3 has been known for many years and the functional gene transfer from bacteria to mammalian cells has been studied and reported by several groups in the last two decades.4"10 This review describes the mechanism of bacteria-mediated gene transfer, gives some examples of therapeutic applications and of emerging technologies based on this strategy.
