Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)Jan 29, 2025

Ultrasound helps deliver mRNA specifically to the spleen using special coated nanoparticles for immune treatment

mRNA Technology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jan 12, 2026

Abstract

In vivo results demonstrated that ultrasound-assisted fluorinated PEGylated lipid nanoparticles increased mRNA transfection approximately 4.0-fold in the spleen.

Ultrasound-assisted fluorinated PEGylated lipid nanoparticles (F-LNPs) enhance cellular uptake and mRNA release through a controlled shedding mechanism.
F-LNPs facilitate effective mRNA delivery to dendritic cells, macrophages, and B cells, which are key components of the immune system.
The targeted delivery of mRNA encoding for ovalbumin significantly induced CD8 T cell responses.
F-LNPs showed excellent therapeutic effects in a tumor model involving ovalbumin-transduced B16F10 cells.
Combining fluorinated PEG lipids with ultrasound treatment may improve the effectiveness of mRNA-based immunotherapies.

Simplified

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) based messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics hold immense promise for treating a wide array of diseases, while their nonhepatic organs targeting and insufficient endosomal escape efficiency remain challenges. For LNPs, polyethylene glycol (PEG) lipids have a crucial role in stabilizing them in aqueous medium, but they severely hinder cellular uptake and reduce transfection efficiency. In this study, we designed ultrasound (US)-assisted fluorinated PEGylated LNPs (F-LNPs) to enhance spleen-targeted mRNA delivery and transfection. Through liquid-to-gas phase transition, we enabled the controlled shedding of fluorinated PEG lipids from F-LNPs, facilitating cellular uptake, membrane fusion, and mRNA release. In vivo results demonstrated that US-assisted F-LNPs increased mRNA transfection approximately 4.0-fold in the spleen following intravenous administration. Notably, the F-LNPs achieved effective mRNA delivery to antigen-presenting cell subsets, such as dendritic cells, macrophages, and B cells. The targeted delivery of full-length ovalbumin-encoding mRNA vaccine induced significant CD8T cell response and exhibited excellent therapeutic effect against the ovalbumin-transduced B16F10 tumor model. These findings establish a novel strategy for spleen-specific mRNA delivery through the combination of fluorinated PEG lipids and US treatment, which holds substantial promise for enhancing the efficacy of immunotherapy, potentially broadening the scope of clinical applications for mRNA-based therapy. +

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Ultrasound helps deliver mRNA specifically to the spleen using special coated nanoparticles for immune treatment

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