Designing Electrospun Fiber Platforms for Efficient Delivery of Genetic Material and Genome Editing Tools

Abstract

Electrospun fibers are versatile biomaterial platforms with great potential to support regeneration. Electrospun fiber characteristics such as fiber diameter, degree of alignment, rate of degradation, and surface chemistry enable the creation of unique, tunable scaffolds for various drug or gene delivery applications. The delivery of genetic material and genome editing tools via viral and non-viral vectors are approaches to control cellular protein production. However, immunogenicity, off-target effects, and low delivery efficiencies slow the progression of gene delivery strategies to clinical settings. The delivery of genetic material from electrospun fibers overcomes such limitations by allowing for localized, tunable delivery of genetic material. However, the process of electrospinning is harsh, and care must be taken to retain genetic material bioactivity. This review presents an up-to-date summary of strategies to incorporate genetic material onto or within electrospun fiber platforms to improve delivery efficiency and enhance the regenerative potential of electrospun fibers for various tissue engineering applications.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant C32245GG

Keywords and Phrases

Biomaterials; Gene therapy; Genome editing; Microfibers; Nanofibers; Regenerative medicine; Wound healing

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1872-8294; 0169-409X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Apr 2022

PubMed ID

35183657

Link to Full Text

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