Breaking the skin barrier: Drugs topically deliver gene therapy via commercial moisturizers for skin disease treatment
Monday, July 2, 2012 - 19:30
in Health & Medicine
"Getting under your skin" takes on new meaning thanks to research that could transform gene therapy. A team from the fields of dermatology and nanotechnology is the first to demonstrate the use of commercial moisturizers to deliver gene therapy with great potential for life-saving therapies for skin cancers. The drug -- consisting of novel spherical arrangements of nucleic acids -- penetrates the skin's layers and can selectively target disease-causing genes while sparing normal genes.