Nanoparticle blueprints reveal path to smarter medicines
New research involving Penn Engineering shows detailed variation in lipid nanoparticle size, shape, and internal structure, and finds that such factors correlate with how well they deliver therapeutic cargo to a particular destination.
2 min. read
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are the delivery vehicles of modern medicine, carrying cancer drugs, gene therapies, and vaccines into cells. Until recently, many scientists assumed that all LNPs followed more or less the same blueprint, like a fleet of trucks built from the same design.
(From left) Doctoral student Hannah Yamagata, research assistant professor Kushol Gupta, and postdoctoral fellow Marshall Padilla holding 3D-printed models of nanoparticles.
(Image: Bella Ciervo)
Now, in Nature Biotechnology, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Waters Corporation have characterized the shape and structure of LNPs in unprecedented detail, revealing that the particles come in a surprising variety of configurations. That variety isn’t just cosmetic: The researchers find that a particle’s internal shape and structure correlates with how well it delivers therapeutic cargo to a particular destination.
“Treating LNPs like one model of car has worked, as evidenced by the millions of people these particles have helped, but LNPs are not one-size-fits-all for every RNA therapy,” says Michael J. Mitchell, associate professor in bioengineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-senior author of the paper. “Just as pickups, delivery vans, and freight trucks best suit different journeys, we can now begin to match LNP designs to particular therapies and tissues, making these particles even more effective.”
“These results deliver a more fundamental understanding of how the composition and shape of these therapeutic particles relate to their biology,” says Kushol Gupta, research assistant professor in biochemistry and biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine and the paper’s other co-senior author. “These particles have already proven themselves in the clinic, and these insights will make them even more powerful by helping us tailor delivery to specific diseases more quickly.”
A generous gift from alumni Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman brings the work of internationally acclaimed artist Jaume Plensa to the University of Pennsylvania. The latest addition to the Penn Art Collection expands Philadelphia's public art.
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