Hybrid carbon-based materials for gene delivery in cancer therapy

Accumulation at tumor tissue without any damage to healthy normal tissues is an ultimate goal in cancer therapy. Despite many efforts in the field of cancer therapy, this disease remains as the major reason of mortality all over the world. Gene therapy has introduced great opportunity to fight against cancer disease. It should be noted that still some obstacles limit clinical application of gene delivery approach, which have to be overcome for efficient transportation of therapeutic gene to the site of action. In this regard, carbon nanomaterials and their unique physical and chemical properties such as their capability of DNA protection have attracted much attention in the field of nanomedicine and non-viral carriers for therapeutic genes. Although, negligible solubility of carbon nanomaterials in biological environments has limited their biomedical application but their structural characteristics facilitate their chemical modifications thereby overcoming their solubility problem. Moreover, hybridization of modified carbon materials with different polymers provides more biocompatible and capable systems for gene delivery purposes. In the current review, we summarized hybrid carbon-based materials as non-viral carriers for gene delivery.