RECEPTOR-MEDIATED GENE DELIVERY EMPLOYING LECTIN-BINDING SPECIFICITY

Selective targeting of malignant cells will be necessary to implement many of the gene therapy strategies being designed to combat cancer. T argeting can be achieved by transductional or transcriptional approach es. Transductional targeting can be accomplished by exploiting differe nces in the molecules or receptors expressed on the cell surface of ma lignant versus normal cells. Given that malignant cells can be disting uished from normal by differences in the expression of cell surface ca rbohydrates, we hypothesized that transductional targeting would be fe asible by molecular conjugate vectors which achieve cell binding by vi rtue of lectins directed against the cell surface glycocalyx. We have shown that gene transfer can be accomplished by these novel lectin-tar geted molecular conjugate vectors and that lectin binding specificitie s may serve as a means for potential targeting of cancer cells for the purposes of gene therapy.