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Jiang T, Gonzalez KM, Cordova LE, Lu J. Nanotechnology-enabled gene delivery for cancer and other genetic diseases. Expert Opin Drug Deliv 2023; 20:523-540. [PMID: 37017558 PMCID: PMC10164135 DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2023.2200246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Despite gene therapy is ideal for genetic abnormality-related diseases, the easy degradation, poor targeting, and inefficiency in entering targeted cells are plaguing the effective delivery of gene therapy. Viral and non-viral vectors have been used for delivering gene therapeutics in vivo by safeguarding nucleic acid agents to target cells and to reach the specific intracellular location. A variety of nanotechnology-enabled safe and efficient systems have been successfully developed to improve the targeting ability for effective therapeutic delivery of genetic drugs. AREAS COVERED In this review, we outline the multiple biological barriers associated with gene delivery process, and highlight recent advances to gene therapy strategy in vivo, including gene correction, gene silencing, gene activation and genome editing. We point out current developments and challenges exist of non-viral and viral vector systems in association with chemical and physical gene delivery technologies and their potential for the future. EXPERT OPINION This review focuses on the opportunities and challenges to various gene therapy strategy, with specific emphasis on overcoming the challenges through the development of biocompatibility and smart gene vectors for potential clinical application.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Jiang
- Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
| | - Karina Marie Gonzalez
- Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
| | - Leyla Estrella Cordova
- Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
| | - Jianqin Lu
- Skaggs Pharmaceutical Sciences Center, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
- NCI-designated University of Arizona Comprehensive Cancer Center, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
- BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, United States
- Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, United States
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Luo M, Lee LKC, Peng B, Choi CHJ, Tong WY, Voelcker NH. Delivering the Promise of Gene Therapy with Nanomedicines in Treating Central Nervous System Diseases. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2022; 9:e2201740. [PMID: 35851766 PMCID: PMC9475540 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202201740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Revised: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Central Nervous System (CNS) diseases, such as Alzheimer's diseases (AD), Parkinson's Diseases (PD), brain tumors, Huntington's disease (HD), and stroke, still remain difficult to treat by the conventional molecular drugs. In recent years, various gene therapies have come into the spotlight as versatile therapeutics providing the potential to prevent and treat these diseases. Despite the significant progress that has undoubtedly been achieved in terms of the design and modification of genetic modulators with desired potency and minimized unwanted immune responses, the efficient and safe in vivo delivery of gene therapies still poses major translational challenges. Various non-viral nanomedicines have been recently explored to circumvent this limitation. In this review, an overview of gene therapies for CNS diseases is provided and describes recent advances in the development of nanomedicines, including their unique characteristics, chemical modifications, bioconjugations, and the specific applications that those nanomedicines are harnessed to deliver gene therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meihua Luo
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutics ScienceMonash UniversityParkville Campus, 381 Royal ParadeParkvilleVIC3052Australia
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnologythe University of QueenslandSt LuciaQLD4072Australia
| | - Leo Kit Cheung Lee
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringThe Chinese University of Hong KongShatinNew TerritoriesHong Kong
| | - Bo Peng
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutics ScienceMonash UniversityParkville Campus, 381 Royal ParadeParkvilleVIC3052Australia
- Frontiers Science Center for Flexible ElectronicsXi'an Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE) and Xi'an Institute of Biomedical materials & EngineeringNorthwestern Polytechnical UniversityXi'an710072China
| | - Chung Hang Jonathan Choi
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringThe Chinese University of Hong KongShatinNew TerritoriesHong Kong
| | - Wing Yin Tong
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutics ScienceMonash UniversityParkville Campus, 381 Royal ParadeParkvilleVIC3052Australia
| | - Nicolas H. Voelcker
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutics ScienceMonash UniversityParkville Campus, 381 Royal ParadeParkvilleVIC3052Australia
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)ClaytonVIC3168Australia
- Melbourne Centre for NanofabricationVictorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility151 Wellington RoadClaytonVIC3168Australia
- Materials Science and EngineeringMonash University14 Alliance LaneClaytonVIC3800Australia
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Zheng M, Tao W, Zou Y, Farokhzad OC, Shi B. Nanotechnology-Based Strategies for siRNA Brain Delivery for Disease Therapy. Trends Biotechnol 2018; 36:562-575. [PMID: 29422412 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2017] [Revised: 01/10/2018] [Accepted: 01/11/2018] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based gene silencing technology has demonstrated significant potential for treating brain-associated diseases. However, effective and safe systemic delivery of siRNA into the brain remains challenging because of biological barriers such as enzymatic degradation, short circulation lifetime, the blood-brain barrier (BBB), insufficient tissue penetration, cell endocytosis, and cytosolic transport. Nanotechnology offers intriguing potential for addressing these challenges in siRNA brain delivery in conjunction with chemical and biological modification strategies. In this review, we outline the challenges of systemic delivery of siRNA-based therapy for brain diseases, highlight recent advances in the development and engineering of siRNA nanomedicines for various brain diseases, and discuss our perspectives on this exciting research field for siRNA-based therapy towards more effective brain disease therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng Zheng
- International Joint Center for Biomedical Innovation, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004, China
| | - Wei Tao
- Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Yan Zou
- International Joint Center for Biomedical Innovation, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004, China
| | - Omid C Farokhzad
- Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Bingyang Shi
- International Joint Center for Biomedical Innovation, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004, China.
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Whole-genome thermodynamic analysis reduces siRNA off-target effects. PLoS One 2013; 8:e58326. [PMID: 23484018 PMCID: PMC3590146 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2012] [Accepted: 02/01/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are important tools for knocking down targeted genes, and have been widely applied to biological and biomedical research. To design siRNAs, two important aspects must be considered: the potency in knocking down target genes and the off-target effect on any nontarget genes. Although many studies have produced useful tools to design potent siRNAs, off-target prevention has mostly been delegated to sequence-level alignment tools such as BLAST. We hypothesize that whole-genome thermodynamic analysis can identify potential off-targets with higher precision and help us avoid siRNAs that may have strong off-target effects. To validate this hypothesis, two siRNA sets were designed to target three human genes IDH1, ITPR2 and TRIM28. They were selected from the output of two popular siRNA design tools, siDirect and siDesign. Both siRNA design tools have incorporated sequence-level screening to avoid off-targets, thus their output is believed to be optimal. However, one of the sets we tested has off-target genes predicted by Picky, a whole-genome thermodynamic analysis tool. Picky can identify off-target genes that may hybridize to a siRNA within a user-specified melting temperature range. Our experiments validated that some off-target genes predicted by Picky can indeed be inhibited by siRNAs. Similar experiments were performed using commercially available siRNAs and a few off-target genes were also found to be inhibited as predicted by Picky. In summary, we demonstrate that whole-genome thermodynamic analysis can identify off-target genes that are missed in sequence-level screening. Because Picky prediction is deterministic according to thermodynamics, if a siRNA candidate has no Picky predicted off-targets, it is unlikely to cause off-target effects. Therefore, we recommend including Picky as an additional screening step in siRNA design.
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Lévesque MV, Rouleau SG, Perreault JP. Selection of the most potent specific on/off adaptor-hepatitis delta virus ribozymes for use in gene targeting. Nucleic Acid Ther 2011; 21:241-52. [PMID: 21793786 DOI: 10.1089/nat.2011.0301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) ribozyme, which is well adapted to the environment of the human cell, is an excellent candidate for the future development of gene-inactivation systems. On top of this, a new generation of HDV ribozymes now exists that benefits from the addition of a specific on/off adaptor (specifically the SOFA-HDV ribozymes) which greatly increases both the ribozyme's specificity and its cleavage activity. Unlike RNAi and hammerhead ribozymes, the designing of SOFA-HDV ribozymes to cleave, in trans, given RNA species has never been the object of a systematic optimization study, even with their recent use for the gene knockdown of various targets. This report aims at both improving and clarifying the design process of SOFA-HDV ribozymes. Both the ribozyme and the targeted RNA substrate were analyzed in order to provide new criteria that are useful in the selection of the most potent SOFA-HDV ribozymes. The crucial features present in both the ribozyme's biosensor and blocker, as well as at the target site, were identified and characterized. Simple rules were derived and tested using hepatitis C virus NS5B RNA as a model target. Overall, this method should promote the use of the SOFA-HDV ribozymes in a plethora of applications in both functional genomics and gene therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michel V Lévesque
- RNA Group/Groupe ARN, Département de Biochimie, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
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Oligomeric nucleic acids as antivirals. Molecules 2011; 16:1271-96. [PMID: 21278679 PMCID: PMC6259927 DOI: 10.3390/molecules16021271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2010] [Revised: 01/12/2011] [Accepted: 01/25/2011] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Based on the natural functions and chemical characteristics of nucleic acids, a variety of novel synthetic drugs and tools to explore biological systems have become available in recent years. To date, a great number of antisense oligonucleotides, RNA interference-based tools, CpG-containing oligonucleotides, catalytic oligonucleotides, decoys and aptamers has been produced synthetically and applied successfully for understanding and manipulating biological processes and in clinical trials to treat a variety of diseases. Their versatility and potency make them equally suited candidates for fighting viral infections. Here, we describe the different types of nucleic acid-based antivirals, their mechanism of action, their advantages and limitations, and their future prospects.
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