A groundbreaking study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that a combination of mRNA and a new lipid nanoparticle could revolutionize lung healing methods. This research, published in Nature Communications, offers hope for treating lung damage caused by viruses, physical trauma, or other conditions.
Traditional treatments like inhaled medication may be ineffective when the injury is located deep within the lungs where they don’t easily reach. The new injectable therapy provides a proof of concept that targets these hard-to-reach areas more precisely than current methods.
Lung damage can arise from various factors, including physical injuries leading to inflammation and respiratory viruses such as COVID-19, flu, and RSV. These conditions often trigger an inflammatory response causing fluid buildup in the airways, excessive mucus production, cell death, and lung lining damage. Regardless of whether acute or chronic, lung impairments can be life-threatening.
Respiratory diseases were already a leading cause of death worldwide before the pandemic according to The Lancet. This underscores the importance and potential impact of new treatments like those being developed at Penn.
The method used in this study involves pairing mRNA with unique lipid nanoparticles known as ionizable amphiphilic Janus dendrimers (IAJDs). These IAJDs, discovered by Virgil Percec, PhD, are derived from natural materials and have shown organ specificity. This property makes them ideal for delivering mRNA directly to the lungs.
Once in the lung, the mRNA instructs the immune system to produce transforming growth factor beta (TGF-b), a signaling molecule critical for tissue repair. This targeted approach is particularly valuable as current treatments either don’t target deep tissues effectively or require extremely cold storage and production methods that can be challenging.
This research not only marks progress in lung treatment but also opens possibilities for treating other organs using similar mRNA delivery platforms. Percec, Atochina-Vasserman, and their team are already exploring applications against infections in the spleen using a similar approach.
The study was supported by multiple grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32-ES01984, P30-ES005022), the National Science Foundation (DMR-1807127, DMR-1720530, DMR-2104554), and the Wellcome Leap R3 program.
