Publications

Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2017 Jun 16.

Translation of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 upon Liver- and Lung-Targeted Delivery of Optimized Chemically Modified mRNA.

Schrom E, Huber M, Aneja M, Dohmen C, Emrich D, Geiger J, Hasenpusch G, Herrmann-Janson A, Kretzschmann V, Mykhailyk O, Pasewald T, Oak P, Hilgendorff A, Wohlleber D, Hoymann HG, Schaudien D, Plank C, Rudolph C, Kubisch-Dohmen R

Changes in lifestyle and environmental conditions give rise to an increasing prevalence of liver and lung fibrosis, and both have a poor prognosis. Promising results have been reported for recombinant angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein administration in experimental liver and lung fibrosis. However, the full potential of ACE2 may be achieved by localized translation of a membrane-anchored form. For this purpose, we advanced the latest RNA technology for liver- and lung-targeted ACE2 translation. We demonstrated in vitro that transfection with ACE2 chemically modified messenger RNA (cmRNA) leads to robust translation of fully matured, membrane-anchored ACE2 protein. In a second step, we designed eight modified ACE2 cmRNA sequences and identified a lead sequence for in vivo application. Finally, formulation of this ACE2 cmRNA in tailor-made lipidoid nanoparticles and in lipid nanoparticles led to liver- and lung-targeted translation of significant amounts of ACE2 protein, respectively. In summary, we provide evidence that RNA transcript therapy (RTT) is a promising approach for ACE2-based treatment of liver and lung fibrosis to be tested in fibrotic disease models.

PMID: 28624211 [PubMed - in process]
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