Developed over the past two decades, the antisense strategy has become a te
chnology of recognised therapeutic potential, and many of the problems rais
ed earlier in its application have been solved to varying extents. However,
the adequate delivery of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to individual cel
ls remains an important and inordinately difficult challenge. Synthetic pol
ymers appeared on this scene in the middle 1980s, and there is a surprising
ly large variety used or proposed so far as agents for delivery of oligodeo
xynucleotides. After discussing the principles of antisense strategy, certa
in aspects of the ingestion of macromolecules by cells, and the present Sit
uation of delivery procedures, this article analyses in detail the attempts
to use synthetic polymers as carrier matrices and/or cell membrane permeab
ilisation agents for delivery of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides. Structura
l aspects of various polymers, as well as the results, promises and limitat
ions of their use are critically evaluated. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
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