Researchers at RMIT University have proved effective in laboratory tests and safer than standard viral approaches by developing a non-viral, bio-inspired gene delivery method.

Gene therapy, which is widely considered to be the next limit of cancer research, includes the addition of new genes to cells of a patient to replace missing or malfunctioning cells causing the illness.

Since cells do not use genes or any foreign DNA material naturally, therapeutic genes enter cells are the main challenge for gene therapy.

However, the risk of bringing a virus into the body has slowed progress from the laboratory to the clinic and only three FDA virus-based therapies have always been approved. Research focuses on the use of viral delivery technologies.

Although the non-viral techniques are safer and comparatively cheap, less than 0.25% of gene therapy studies focused on different outcomes.

Lead investigator Dr. Shukla said it will be the main move for gene therapies to be taken out of the lab and into clinics to deal with the gap in appropriate non-viral procedures.

With Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), Shukla and his team are developing the new technique which can be used to store, separate, release or safeguard almost any biomolecule with extremely flexible and super-porous Nanos.

The study is endorsed by the CSIRO, which has established a technology to produce industrial-scale amounts of MOF. This technology is based on the Commonwealth.

MOFs have increasingly gained ground, and these newest findings show great potential in non-viral gene therapy, mostly for industrial or chemical purposes.

Researchers used a MOF subset known to convey the DNA into their cell, which was biocompatible and biodegradable.

The MOF-based therapy technique for the therapy of lung and breast cancer and other gender illnesses is efficient in prostate cancer cells.

Arpita Poddar, Ph.D. Researcher who has worked on the discovery with Shukla, said the results represent the first step towards opening up a study line that has been disregarded so far.

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Non-viral Gene Therapy will now accelerate cancer study - Industry Reporter