Translocating peptides and proteins and their use for gene delivery

A dramatic surge in the development of peptides for gene delivery in vitro and in vivo has been witnessed in the past decade. A better understanding o f the structural and mechanistic properties of peptides has been an importa nt step for the rational design of optimal peptide-based gene delivery syst ems. Research has focused on the design of short synthetic peptides that ov ercome both extracellular and intracellular limitations of other gene deliv ery systems by binding reversibly and condensing DNA, specifically targetin g cells and/or tissues, rapidly releasing plasmids into the cytoplasm and m ediating efficient nuclear translocation.