Endosomal Interaction of Lipid Nanoparticles

There has been a shift in the pharma industry towards development of medicines containing therapeutic agents acting at sub-cellular compartments, thereby creating a demand for advanced delivery vehicles that convey their payload to the required site of action. A feature of intracellular delivery is that the vehicle is taken up by the target cells via endocytosis with the vehicle and its payload becoming engulfed in the endosome. In order for the therapeutic molecule to exert its effect, it must escape from the endosome. Neutron reflectometry coupled with contrast variation will help to unravel the interaction(s) between lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) carrying RNA and containing different ionisable lipids and the endosomal membrane (particularly the early stage endosomal membrane) to enable the design of efficient LNPs that can escape the endosome at an early stage with an intact RNA payload.