Transfection types, methods and strategies: a technical review

PeerJ. 2021 Apr 21:9:e11165. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11165. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Transfection is a modern and powerful method used to insert foreign nucleic acids into eukaryotic cells. The ability to modify host cells' genetic content enables the broad application of this process in studying normal cellular processes, disease molecular mechanism and gene therapeutic effect. In this review, we summarized and compared the findings from various reported literature on the characteristics, strengths, and limitations of various transfection methods, type of transfected nucleic acids, transfection controls and approaches to assess transfection efficiency. With the vast choices of approaches available, we hope that this review will help researchers, especially those new to the field, in their decision making over the transfection protocol or strategy appropriate for their experimental aims.

Keywords: Chemicals; Controls; Efficiency; Methods; Nucleic acids; Transfection.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by FRGS grants by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, grant numbers FRGS/1/2018/STG05/UNIM/02/1 and FRGS/1/2014/SG05/UNIM/02/1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.