Gemini surfactants: a new family of building blocks for non-viral gene delivery systems.

Gemini surfactants provide a significant opportunity in the development of new non-viral delivery systems designed for gene therapy applications. This review summarizes the wide range of gemini surfactant structures that have been employed for DNA transfection in vitro. A general observation is that those structures capable of inducing a wide variety of polymorphic structures (lamellar, hexagonal, or cubic phases) demonstrate higher transfection efficiencies. Those compounds whose structures result in pH-dependent changes in aggregate structure similarly show higher levels of transfection. In vivo transfection using gemini surfactants has been demonstrated in only three cases, and in a recent study the transfection was linked to a specific therapeutic response.