Nucleic acids play an important role in cellular processes including cell division (DNA replication) and protein synthesis (transcription and translation). The deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA contains the genetic information necessary for the replication of the cell and its functioning after transcription of DNA into RNA and translation of RNA into proteins. These processes occur both in healthy cells, and in cancer cells, in which case they are targets for anti-cancer drugs. Two groups of medications concerning DNA: those, which protect DNA from alterations, due for example to radical reactions, causing cancers and those, which damage DNA of cancerous cells and microorganisms, while respecting if possible DNA of normal cells. Drugs, which damage nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, already constituted, inhibit cellular replication and function. They are used as antineoplastic agents and as antibiotics. Lipid-based vesicles are a very promising approach to treat diseases such as cancer, chronic infections and auto-immunity. Modern drug encapsulation methods allow efficient packing of therapeutic substances inside liposomes, thereby reducing the systemic toxicity of the drugs. Gene therapy is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development, which may be classified into two types: somatic and germ line gene therapy. Nucleic acid-based molecules (deoxyribonucleic acid, complementary deoxyribonucleic acid, complete genes, ribonucleic acid, and oligonucleotides) are utilized as research tools within the broad borders of gene therapy and the emerging field of molecular medicine. " Nucleic acid medicine " is a next generation drug discovery technology with a completely different mechanism of action than traditional pharmaceutical products.

The use of aptamers, antisense technology and RNA interference has allowed nucleic acids to be considered as promising alternatives to classical drugs. However, nucleic acids face several obstacles in the creation of effective nucleic acid drugs. The development of these approaches has strengthened the pipeline with an increasing number of these therapies in clinical trials. This review covers research and patent literature from the last three years, focusing on the development of safe and effective non-viral drug delivery systems for the treatment of diseases such as cancer or genetic disorders by using oligonucleotides. The therapeutic applications of oligonucleotides have overcome multiple obstacles, especially in biodistribution and cellular internalization. Cationic lipids are the most used vehicles for the preparation of novel formulations. Combinatorial libraries of these compounds and the use of solid lipid nanoparticles carrying these synthetic cationic lipids (cholesterol ...