The major obstacle facing efficient gene therapy is the development of reliable delivery\nvehicles, which are both nontoxic and biocompatible and possess efficient cell-specific gene delivery.\nPreviously, hybrid delivery vehicles comprising anionic liposomes and cationic polymers have\nbeen used successfully for gene therapy. In this study, hybrid vectors based on glycosylated\nartificial viral envelopes (including two novel compositions mimicking HIV and HSV envelopes)\nand polyethylenimine were morphologically and physiologically characterised. Transfection studies\nshowed that the hybrid vectors based on the control liposomes, and their glycosylated modifications,\nhad significantly higher transfection rates compared to the polyplexes. Improvement in the\ntransfection efficiency was observed with the glycosylated HIV- and HSV-mimicking hybrid vectors,\nwhich also showed a safe biocompatibility profile based on the cytotoxicity and haemocompatibility\nassays. These glycosylated artificial viral envelope-based hybrid vectors could be used as safe gene\ndelivery systems with potential to become new compositions for efficient nonviral gene therapy.
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