Nucleic-Acid Delivery Using Lipid Nanocapsules

Lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) were designed more than 15 years ago to deliver lipophilic drugs to cells with non toxic excipients by mimicking lipoproteins. During the last 5 years these promising nanocarriers were re-designed to deliver nucleic acids to cancer cells. This short review sums up the features of LNCs and describes how DNAs or RNAs can be associated or encapsulated in these lipid carriers. The results of transfection effects on cells in vitro or in vivo are also presented. These new therapeutic strategies have been mainly proposed for glioma and melanoma treatment because these cancers are characterized by multiple acquired resistances, which can be reversed by DNA transfection or siRNA interference as it is discussed in this paper. In conclusion, LNCs are very good candidates to deliver nucleic acids to cells in the course of anti-cancer therapies.