Molecular cancer2026ResearchNon-viral Gene DeliveryDrug Delivery
Ni J, He G, Wang H, Qin Y, Guo J, Wang Y, Et Al.
Proficient mismatch repair/microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer (pMMR/MSS CRC), which represents the majority of clinical cases, exhibits low tumor mutational burden and minimal responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade. Disrupting the MMR system has been shown to resensitize pMMR/MSS CRC to immune…
Read the article →International journal of pharmaceutics: X2026ResearchNon-viral Gene DeliveryDrug Delivery
Kim Kh, Mainali A, Pih Sh, Jung Hs, Kim Hj, Kim Na, Et Al.
RNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are highly sensitive to temperature fluctuations, which present significant challenges for storage and transportation. Lyophilization is a potential strategy to enhance storage stability; however, the freeze-drying process can subject nanoparticles to stresses that may alter…
Read the article →Molecular pharmaceutics2026ResearchNon-viral Gene DeliveryDrug Delivery
Gul S, Vergnaud J, Wang Q, Hery M, Dumont F, Tran P, Et Al.
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are central regulators of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Their polarization state can critically influence tumor development and treatment resistance. In the TME, the pro-tumor M2-like phenotype is the most prevalent among TAMs and contributes to tumor progression by promoting…
Read the article →Pharmaceutics2026ResearchNon-viral Gene DeliveryDrug Delivery
Teng Y, Xu X, Gao J, Liu J
Background : Infantile hemangioma (IH) is the most common benign vascular tumor of infancy, and propranolol, the current first-line treatment, requires prolonged twice-daily dosing and has adverse systemic effects. Methods : Using the public GSE127487 transcriptomic dataset together with weighted gene coexpression…
Read the article →Nature Communications 14, 345 (2023ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Xuexiang Han, Ningqiang Gong, Lulu Xue, Margaret M. Billingsley, Rakan El-Mayta, Sarah J. Shepherd, Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh, Drew Weissman, Michael J. Mitchell
Liver fibrosis has no approved antifibrotic therapies. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) drive fibrosis by producing collagen, and HSP47 is a key collagen chaperone in these cells. Targeted delivery of siRNA to activated HSCs remains challenging, so a ligand-tethered LNP platform was developed to deliver RNA…
Read the article →Accounts of Chemical Research2022ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Yulia Eygieris, Mohit Gupta, Jeonghwan Kim, Gaurav Sahay
LNPs enabled the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and the first siRNA-LNP drug, but there is still no one-size-fits-all LNP for every RNA therapeutic. A better chemistry-level understanding of LNP self-assembly, component roles, and whole-particle properties is needed to rationally design safer and more efficient RNA delivery…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release 349 (2022ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Annabelle Biscans, Socheata Ly, Nicholas Mchugh, David A. Cooper, Anastasia Khvorova
Lipid-conjugated siRNAs can reach extrahepatic tissues, but silencing efficacy remains lower than in liver largely because only ~1–2% of internalised siRNA escapes endosomes into the cytoplasm. Ionisable lipids enhance endosomal escape in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), but direct covalent conjugation of an ionisable…
Read the article →Nano Letters2021ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Sarah J. Shepherd, Claude C. Warzecha, Sagar Yadavali, Rakan El-Mayta, Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh, Lili Wang, Drew Weissman, James M. Wilson, David Issadore, Michael J. Mitchell
Microfluidic mixing can produce precise LNPs but is limited in throughput, while bulk mixing is scalable but yields larger, heterogeneous particles with variable potency. A scalable microfluidic device is needed to produce potent RNA-LNPs across discovery and clinical scales. PMD achieved 18.4 L/h production…
Read the article →Advanced Science (Weinh.)2021ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Johan Karlsson, Stephanie Y. Tzeng, Shayan Hemmati, Kathryn M. Luly, Olivia Choi, Yuan Rui, David R. Wilson, Kristen L. Kozielski, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, Jordan J. Green
Systemic delivery of RNA therapeutics with polymer-based nanocarriers is limited by poor colloidal stability in blood and inefficient intracellular delivery of siRNA to the cytosol. There is a need for nanoparticles that remain stable extracellularly but rapidly release RNA intracellularly. Crosslinking: Molecular…
Read the article →International Journal of Polymeric Materials and Polymeric Biomaterials2021ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Liu T, Lin M, Wu F, Lin A, Luo D, Zhang Z
siRNA therapeutics are limited by poor cellular uptake, serum nuclease degradation, and inefficient endosomal/lysosomal escape. Chitosan is biocompatible and biodegradable but has low transfection efficiency, largely due to poor buffering capacity and weak endosomal escape. Histidine grafting was explored to add…
Read the article →2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Vitor Francisco, Catarina Rebelo, Artur Filipe Rodrigues, Josephine Blersch, Hugo Fernandes, Lino Ferreira
Non-viral vectors such as nanoparticles (NPs) show promise for RNA-based therapies, but suffer from limited cell targeting, poor cellular internalisation, and inadequate endolysosomal escape capacity. The field lacks a systematic, high-throughput approach to identify effective polymeric nanocarriers that can deliver…
Read the article →Biomaterials Science (accepted manuscript; manuscript ID BM-ART-09-2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Rui Zhang, Rakan El-Mayta, Timothy Murdoch, Claude Warzecha, Margaret Billingsley, Sarah Shepherd, Ningqiang Gong, Lili Wang, James Wilson, Daeyeon Lee, Michael J. Mitchell
LNP delivery to liver versus spleen is difficult to predict from formulation parameters, and the role of helper phospholipids in biodistribution and protein adsorption is incompletely understood. This study probed how helper lipid identity (DOPE vs DSPC) affects LNP accumulation in liver/spleen and interactions with…
Read the article →Acta Biomaterialia2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Yusuke Sato, Nana Okabe, Yusuke Note, Kazuki Hashiba, Masatoshi Maeki, Manabu Tokeshi, Hideyoshi Harashima
Small-sized lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are attractive for tissue penetration but often lose potency because lipid components diffuse out and serum proteins adsorb onto poorly packed surfaces. The study asked how the hydrophobic scaffold structure of pH-sensitive cationic lipids affects small-LNP stability, lipid…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Nour Shobaki, Yusuke Sato, Yuichi Suzuki, Nana Okabe, Hideyoshi Harashima
Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) are largely M2-like and promote tumour growth, angiogenesis, metastasis, and immune suppression. There is a need for systemic delivery systems that can target TAMs and manipulate their pro-tumour functions with siRNA for cancer immunotherapy. Optimised CL4H6-LNPs had 90% siRNA…
Read the article →Nature Communications2020ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Siddharth Patel, N. Ashwanikumar, Ema Robinson, Yan Xia, Cosmin Mihai, Joseph P. Griffith Iii, Shangguo Hou, Adam A. Esposito, Tatiana Ketova, Kevin Welsher, John L. Joyal, Örn Almarsson, Gaurav Sahay
Endosomal sequestration of lipid-based nanoparticles (LNPs) remains a formidable barrier to delivery, with only <2% of LNPs reaching the cytosol. The role of cholesterol structure in LNP-mediated mRNA delivery and endosomal escape was poorly understood. There is a need to decode the structural characteristics of…
Read the article →Nanoscale2019ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Dongyu Chen, Shanthi Ganesh, Weimin Wang, Mansoor Amiji
Protein corona formation in biological fluids can alter nanoparticle cellular uptake, transfection, and gene silencing, but the relationship between LNP surface chemistry and corona-mediated delivery is incompletely understood. This study examined how PEG lipid chain length and PEG molar ratio affect protein corona…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2019ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Yusuke Sato, Kazuki Hashiba, Kosuke Sasaki, Masatoshi Maeki, Manabu Tokeshi, Hideyoshi Harashima
Endosomal escape remains a major rate-limiting step for siRNA delivery. The structure–activity relationships (SAR) of pH-sensitive cationic lipids were incompletely understood, limiting rational design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for efficient in vivo siRNA delivery to hepatocytes. Hydrophilic head group structure…
Read the article →Toxicology Research (RSC)2018ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Shaohui Cui, Yueying Wang, Yan Gong, Xiao Lin, Yinan Zhao, Defu Zhi, Quan Zhou, Shubiao Zhang
Cationic lipids are widely used non-viral gene delivery vectors, but their toxicity remains a major bottleneck for clinical translation. Cytotoxicity is strongly associated with the cationic headgroup structure, yet the relationship between headgroup chemistry and toxic mechanisms has been rarely studied. IC50…
Read the article →PLOS ONE2017ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Susanne Przybylski, Michaela Gasch, Anne Marschner, Marcus Ebert, Alexander Ewe, Gisa Helmig, Nadja Hilger, Stephan Fricke, Susanne Rudzok, Achim Aigner, Jana Burkhardt
Nanoparticle-based gene delivery methods are promising for transfecting immune cells, but their impact on basic immune functions such as proliferation—a cornerstone of cellular immunity—has not been systematically investigated. Understanding whether transfection reagents non-specifically influence immune cell…
Read the article →Theranostics2017ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Xi Zhu, Wei Tao, Danny Liu, Jun Wu, Zilei Guo, Xiaoyuan Ji, Zameer Bharwani, Lili Zhao, Xiaoping Zhao, Omid C. Farokhzad, Jinjun Shi
Surface PEGylation of nanoparticles (NPs) improves circulation time and tumour accumulation but also hinders intracellular delivery, creating the "PEG dilemma" for siRNA therapeutics. While stimuli-responsive de-PEGylation strategies exist, they add complexity to NP design and synthesis. A tunable, serum…
Read the article →Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces2017ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Pinnapireddy Sr, Duse L, Strehlow B, Schäfer J, Bakowsky U
Polyethylenimine (PEI)-based gene delivery is limited by cytotoxicity, rapid degradation, and low cellular uptake. A safer, more stable non-viral system was needed for both gene delivery and gene knockdown. Physicochemical properties: DDC liposomes ~198.7 nm, ζ = −30.9 mV; IPEI polyplexes ~166.2 nm, ζ = +19.1 mV…
Read the article →Materials Science and Engineering C2016ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Maryam Hashemi, Seyed Meghdad Tabatabai, Hamideh Parhiz, Soroush Milanizadeh, Sara Amel Farzad, Khalil Abnous, Mohammad Ramezani
PAMAM and PPI dendrimers are widely investigated for gene delivery but suffer from limitations including cytotoxicity and inefficient endosomal escape. While both employ the proton sponge mechanism for endosomal release, higher generations that improve transfection also increase cytotoxicity. A systematic comparison…
Read the article →Journal of Controlled Release2016ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Matthias Van Woensel, Nathalie Wauthoz, Rémi Rosière, Véronique Mathieu, Róbert Kiss, Florence Lefranc, Brecht Steelant, Ellen Dilissen, Stefaan W. Van Gool, Thomas Mathivet, Holger Gerhardt, Karim Amighi, Steven De Vleeschouwer
Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is overexpressed in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), promotes tumour progression, angiogenesis, chemoresistance, and immune suppression. A non-invasive delivery strategy is needed to reach CNS tumours with siRNA while limiting systemic effects. The intranasal route was explored as an underexplored…
Read the article →Cell Chemical Biology (Chemistry & Biology)2015ResearchNon-viral Gene Delivery
Skye Zeller, Chang Seon Choi, Pradeep D. Uchil, Hong-Seok Ban, Alyssa Siefert, Tarek M. Fahmy, Walther Mothes, Sang-Kyung Lee, Priti Kumar
Arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) such as nona-arginine (9R) can effectively translocate covalently attached biomolecules into cells, but poorly deliver electrostatically complexed siRNA, with most CPP:siRNA complexes trapped in endosomes. The mechanism by which ligand attachment to 9R overcomes this…
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