Nanomaterials in gene therapy from tumor therapy to novel coronavirus vaccine

Gene therapy, a precise and effective therapeutic strategy, can be applied to a variety of diseases including cancer and infectious diseases．However, instability and large size of nucleic acid drugs used in gene therapyhinder their effective applications．Nanomaterials have proved to be the most promising in clinical tumor gene therapy due to low immunogenicity, good controllability, easy surface modification and multifunctioning．In particular, mRNA vaccines have attracted much attention since the outbreak of COVID-19．Lipid nanoparticles (LNP) has been used successfully as the delivery system of this vaccine．Major types of gene therapy were outlined in this mini-review．The delivery platform for nucleic acids could be based on lipids, cationic polymers, inorganic nanoparticles and other new nanomaterials such as carbon dots．Their applications in tumor therapy and development of novel coronavirus vaccine are emphasized．Future challenges and prospects of nanomaterial for gene therapy are presented．