Intradermal delivery of interleukin-12 plasmid DNA by in vivo electroporation

Gene therapy depends on safe and efficient gene delivery. The skin is an at tractive target for gene delivery because of its accessibility. Recently, i n vivo electroporation has been shown to enhance expression after injection of plasmid DNA. In this study, we examined the use of electroporation to d eliver plasmid DNA to cells of the skin in order to demonstrate that locali zed delivery can result in increased serum concentrations of a specific pro tein, Intradermal injection of a plasmid encoding luciferase resulted in lo w levels of expression. However, when injection was combined with electropo ration, expression was significantly increased. When performing this proced ure with a plasmid encoding interleukin-12, the induced serum concentration s of gamma-interferon were as much as 10 fold higher when electroporation w as used. The results presented here demonstrate that electroporation can be used to augment the efficiency of direct injection of plasmid DNA to skin.