The concept of "Precision Medicine", in that genomic information in the individual patient are used in treatment and dosing protocols, is rapidly expanding. In particular, a series of RNA vaccine against COVID-19 developed by BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna are now widely used worldwide with extremely high preventive results.
Since the mRNA molecule per se is overwhelmingly large. In addition, the mRNA is easily degradable. Thus, the development of proper DDS to stabilize mRNA in extracellular environment, and to delivery it to the cytoplasm of target cells is extremely needed in mRNA-based medicine.
In this presentation, we will summarize the current development of lipid nanoparticles (LNP) and lipid materials for mRNA/nucleic acid drug discovery. Among them, we will focus on our materials (SS-cleavable and pH-activated lipid-like material), those are designed so that nanoparticles are actively disintegrated by being cleaved in a cytoplasmic reducing environment. Recently, we are also using our ssPalm as a delivery vehicle of small molecule drugs. In the presentation, I will report on the research to use ssPalm for the delivery of drugs to regulate the cancer immunity cycle.
　Tanaka H et al. Self-Degradable Lipid-Like Materials Based on “Hydrolysis accelerated by the intra-Particle Enrichment of Reactant (HyPER)” for Messenger RNA Delivery. Advanced Functional Materials, 30, 1910575 (2020).