ABSTRACT
Gene therapy presents a new approach to alter the consequences of defective gene
expression and to utilize nucleic acids as therapeutic tools. Over the course of the last
decade there have been many new techniques developed for the transfer of therapeutic
genes into cells, derived from the modified viruses, or artificial non-viral liposome-based
approaches. Non-viral methods have advanced much in the last few years; however, its
efficiency remains below that achieved by virus-derived methods. Viral-derived gene
transfer vectors have become reliable tools for gene transfer.