Vaginal gene therapy

In the last years, vaginal gene therapy has gained increasing attention mainly for the treatment and control of sexually transmitted infections. DNA delivery has been also suggested to improve reproductive outcomes for women with deficiencies in the female reproductive tract. Although no product has reached clinical phase, preclinical investigations reveal the potential of the vaginal tract as an effective administration route for gene delivery. This review focuses on the main advantages and challenges of vaginal gene therapy, and on the most used nucleic acid delivery systems, including viral and non-viral vectors. Additionally, the advances in the application of vaginal gene therapy for the treatment and/or prevention of infectious diseases such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the human papillomavirus (HPV) or the herpes simplex virus (HSV) are presented.