Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki-shi, Nagasaki 852-8588, Japan.
Under Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-14 Bunkyo, Nagasaki-shi, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan.
J Pharm Sci. 2023 May;112(5):1401-1410. doi: 10.1016/j.xphs.2022.12.026. Epub 2022 Dec 31.
Delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) is expected to be applied to various diseases following the successful clinical use of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the cholesterol molar percentage of mRNA-LNPs on protein expression in hepatocellular carcinoma-derived cells and in the liver after intramuscular or subcutaneous administration of mRNA-LNPs in mice. For mRNA-LNPs with cholesterol molar percentages reduced to 10 mol% and 20 mol%, we formulated neutral charge particles with a diameter of approximately 100 nm and polydispersity index (PDI) <0.25. After the intramuscular or subcutaneous administration of mRNA-LNPs with different cholesterol molar percentages in mice, protein expression in the liver decreased as the cholesterol molar percentage in mRNA-LNPs decreased from 40 mol% to 20 mol% and 10 mol%, suggesting that reducing the cholesterol molar percentage in mRNA-LNPs decreases protein expression in the liver. Furthermore, in HepG2 cells, protein expression decreased as cholesterol in mRNA-LNPs was reduced by 40 mol%, 20 mol%, and 10 mol%. These results suggest that the downregulated expression of mRNA-LNPs with low cholesterol content in the liver involves degradation in systemic circulating blood and decreased protein expression after hepatocyte distribution.
信使 RNA(mRNA)的脂质纳米颗粒(LNPs)递送技术有望在 COVID-19 mRNA 疫苗成功临床应用后,应用于各种疾病。本研究旨在评估 mRNA-LNPs 中的胆固醇摩尔百分比对肌肉内或皮下给药后肝癌衍生细胞和小鼠肝脏中蛋白质表达的影响。对于胆固醇摩尔百分比降低至 10 mol%和 20 mol%的 mRNA-LNPs,我们制备了直径约为 100nm、多分散指数(PDI)<0.25 的中性电荷颗粒。在小鼠中肌肉内或皮下给予不同胆固醇摩尔百分比的 mRNA-LNPs 后,随着 mRNA-LNPs 中的胆固醇摩尔百分比从 40 mol%降至 20 mol%和 10 mol%,肝脏中的蛋白质表达降低,表明降低 mRNA-LNPs 中的胆固醇摩尔百分比会降低肝脏中的蛋白质表达。此外,在 HepG2 细胞中,随着 mRNA-LNPs 中的胆固醇减少 40 mol%、20 mol%和 10 mol%,蛋白质表达也随之降低。这些结果表明,低胆固醇含量的 mRNA-LNPs 在肝脏中的下调表达涉及到在全身循环血液中的降解以及在肝细胞分布后蛋白质表达的降低。