Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of viral vectors.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Provide greater gene transfer efficiency in both in vivo and in vitro environments	Can trigger severe immune responses and inflammatory reactions
Persist for longer periods of time in most cases	Their cloning capacity is very limited
Can target a large number of cells	Produced by complex production methods
A large variety of viruses are available to choose from	Low capability of tropism to some specific target cells
Innate ability of tropism toward infection	Can cause mutagenesis by inserting their exogenous DNA into the host genome
Capable of evading endosomes by various mechanisms learned by evolution of viruses	Research is needed to further understand the mechanisms of molecular infection by viruses