Aerosolized Gene Therapy Puts Damper On Angiogenesis In Lung Metastases.

2002 FEB 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston, Texas, have developed a method for delivering gene therapy to the lungs using an aerosolized polymer. They recently described how the therapy targets metastatic growth in the pulmonary passages by changing the expression of two cellular factors.

The therapy consists of a cationic polymer, polyethyleneimine (PEI), that when aerosolized and inhaled can transport DNA for the p53 tumor suppressor gene to tumors growing within the lungs. According to A. Gautam and other Baylor investigators, PEI-p53 DNA gene therapy administered to mice …