1. Academic Validation
  2. Limiting endosomal damage sensing reduces inflammation triggered by lipid nanoparticle endosomal escape

Limiting endosomal damage sensing reduces inflammation triggered by lipid nanoparticle endosomal escape

  • Nat Nanotechnol. 2025 Aug 11:10.1038/s41565-025-01974-5. doi: 10.1038/s41565-025-01974-5.
Serena Omo-Lamai # 1 Yufei Wang # 2 Manthan N Patel # 2 Aleksa Milosavljevic 3 Daniel Zuschlag 3 Subhajit Poddar 4 Jichuan Wu 5 Liuqian Wang 1 Fengyi Dong 1 Carolann Espy 2 Aparajeeta Majumder 5 Eno-Obong Essien 5 Mengwen Shen 6 Breana Channer 7 Tyler E Papp 8 Michael Tobin 1 Rhea Maheshwari 9 Sumin Jeong 10 Sofia Patel 11 Anit Shah 5 Shruthi Murali 1 Liam S Chase 1 Marco E Zamora 12 Mariah L Arral 13 Oscar A Marcos-Contreras 2 Jacob W Myerson 2 Christopher A Hunter 14 Dennis Discher 1 Peter J Gaskill 7 Andrew Tsourkas 1 Vladimir R Muzykantov 2 Igor Brodsky 14 Sunny Shin 12 Kathryn A Whitehead 13 15 Hamideh Parhiz 8 Jeremy Katzen 5 Jonathan J Miner 4 Dirk Trauner 3 Jacob S Brenner 16 17 18
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 2 Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 3 Department of Chemistry, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 4 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 5 Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 6 Emergency Medical Department, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
  • 7 Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 8 Division of Infectious Diseases, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 9 Department of Neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • 10 Department of Bioengineering, George R. Brown School of Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
  • 11 Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
  • 12 Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 13 Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • 14 Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
  • 15 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • 16 Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Jacob.Brenner@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
  • 17 Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Jacob.Brenner@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
  • 18 Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Jacob.Brenner@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as the dominant platform for RNA delivery, but they induce severe inflammation. Here we show that LNPs' hallmark feature, endosomal escape, which is necessary for RNA expression, also triggers inflammation by causing endosomal membrane damage. Large, irreparable, endosomal holes are recognized by cytosolic proteins called galectins, which regulate downstream inflammation. We find that inhibition of galectins abrogates LNP-associated inflammation, both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we show that a unique class of ionizable lipids can create smaller endosomal holes, reparable by the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) pathway. Such lipids can produce high expression from cargo messenger RNA with minimal inflammation. Finally, we show that both Galectin inhibition or ESCRT-recruiting ionizable lipids allow for treatment of highly inflammatory disease models by therapeutic mRNAs. These strategies should lead to safer non-inflammatory LNPs that can be generally used to treat inflammatory diseases.

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