IMPROVEMENT OF TRANSFECTION RESULTS OF NON-VIRAL GENE DELIVERY SYSTEMS BY INFLUENCING THE CONGENITAL IMMUNE SYSTEM

摘要

The congenital immune system of eukaryotes is able to identify, by means of Toll-like receptors, foreign genetic material and activate signal transduction cascades that trigger, via an interferon reply, an antiviral state of cell populations. Said antiviral state is also a barrier for non-viral delivery systems. If said signal transduction cascade is interrupted in an intracellular or intercellular manner, the transfection efficiency of non-viral delivery systems increases and undesired modifications of the expression profile is prevented. As the RNA interference is assigned to the antiviral state, the RNAi-machinery is also activated after an activation of the congenital immune system. Thus, the knock-down efficiency during the transfection of siRNA can be increased.