Polysaccharides: A Carrier for Gene Therapy

Recently, polysaccharides have been proved to be an interesting drug delivery system as gene carriers, and natural polysaccharides have attracted more attention in the field of biomaterials due to their unique non-toxicity, good biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Compared with other polysaccharides, chitosan and dextran have more extensive and profound applications and can directly or indirectly deliver therapeutic genes. Chinese medicinal polysaccharides often do not have cationic groups and cannot directly deliver therapeutic genes. They usually need certain chemical modifications. The operation process is difficult, but better therapeutic effects are achieved. In this paper, the classification of polysaccharides and the research progress in modified polysaccharides as novel gene carriers are reviewed to provide a reference for polysaccharides as novel gene carriers in gene therapy. Moreover, efficient transfection of DNA and RNA therapeutic genes requires the development of new efficient and low-toxic vectors as well as the optimization of existing delivery vectors. Therefore, the research on polysaccharide gene vector has a long way to go and has good prospects in scientific research and biomedicine.