Biology subjects

Hoogenboezem, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Hoogenboezem, E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Intravenous lipid-siRNA conjugate mediates gene silencing at the blood-brain barrier and blood-CSF barrier

Barriers of the central nervous system (CNS), such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB), regulate the two-way exchange of material between the blood and CNS. These barriers pose a considerable challenge for efficacious delivery of intravenously administered therapies into the CNS, motivating exploration of their function and ways to modulate their properties. While the BBB and BCSFB can become dysfunctional in patients with chronic CNS diseases, few studies have focused on strategies for targeting these interfaces. Here, we showed that an intravenously administered albumin-binding lipid-siRNA conjugate was delivered to and silences genes within brain endothelial cells and choroid plexus epithelial cells, which comprise the BBB and BCSFB, respectively. A single intravenous dose of lipid-siRNA conjugate was delivered to [~]100% of brain endothelial cells and major choroid plexus cell types, without any substantial delivery into brain parenchymal tissue. Sustained gene silencing was achieved in both brain endothelial cells (over two weeks) and bulk choroid plexus tissues (up to one month). Moreover, single cell RNA sequencing demonstrated gene knockdown in capillaries, venous endothelial cells, and choroid plexus epithelial cells without silencing genes in parenchymal cell populations. Collectively, this work establishes an effective nonviral framework to mediate gene inhibition in the brain barriers. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=156 SRC="FIGDIR/small/642142v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (43K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b00a52org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@175a363org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@39be75org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1072093_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Lipid-siRNA conjugate accesses a perivascular transport mechanism and achieves widespread and durable knockdown in the central nervous system

Short-interfering RNA (siRNA) has gained significant interest for treatment of neurological diseases by providing the capacity to achieve sustained inhibition of nearly any gene target. Yet, efficacious drug delivery throughout deep brain structures of the CNS remains a considerable hurdle for intrathecally administered therapeutics. We herein describe an albumin-binding lipid-siRNA conjugate that transports along meningeal and perivascular CSF pathways, leading to broad dispersion throughout the CNS parenchyma. We provide a detailed examination of the temporal kinetics of gene silencing, highlighting potent knockdown for up to five months from a single injection without detectable toxicity. Single-cell RNA sequencing further demonstrates gene silencing activity across diverse cell populations in the parenchyma and at brain borders, which may provide new avenues for neurological disease-modifying therapies.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2023

Structural Optimization of siRNA Conjugates for Albumin Binding Achieves Effective MCL1-Targeted Cancer Therapy

The high potential for therapeutic application of siRNAs to silence traditionally undruggable oncogenic drivers remains largely untapped due to the challenges of tumor cell delivery. Here, siRNAs were optimized for in situ binding to albumin through C18 lipid modifications to improve pharmacokinetics and tumor delivery. Systematic variation of siRNA conjugates revealed a lead structure with divalent C18 lipids each linked through three repeats of hexaethylene glycol connected by phosphorothioate bonds. Importantly, we discovered that locating the branch site of the divalent lipid structure proximally (adjacent to the RNA) rather than at a more distal site (after the linker segment) promotes association with albumin, while minimizing self-assembly and lipoprotein association. Comparison to higher albumin affinity (diacid) lipid variants and siRNA directly conjugated to albumin underscored the importance of conjugate hydrophobicity and reversibility of albumin binding for siRNA delivery and bioactivity in tumors. The lead conjugate increased tumor siRNA accumulation 12-fold in orthotopic mouse models of triple negative breast cancer over the parent siRNA. When applied for silencing of the anti-apoptotic oncogene MCL-1, this structure achieved approximately 80% MCL1 silencing in orthotopic breast tumors. Furthermore, application of the lead conjugate structure to target MCL1 yielded better survival outcomes in three independent, orthotopic, triple negative breast cancer models than an MCL1 small molecule inhibitor. These studies provide new structure-function insights on optimally leveraging siRNA-lipid conjugate structures that associate in situ with plasma albumin for molecular-targeted cancer therapy.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2021

Albumin-binding Aptamer Chimeras for Improved siRNA Bioavailability

Short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are potent nucleic acid-based drugs designed to target disease driving genes that may otherwise be undruggable with small molecules. However, the potential of administering therapeutic siRNA in vivo is limited by poor pharmacokinetic properties, including rapid renal clearance and nuclease degradation. Nanocarriers have traditionally been explored as means to overcome these challenges, but they have intrinsic downsides such as dose-limiting toxicity and synthetic complexity. Backpacking on natural carriers such as albumin, which is present at high concentration and has a long half-life in serum, is an effective way to modify pharmacokinetics of biologic drugs that otherwise have poor bioavailability. In this work, we sought to develop albumin-binding aptamer-siRNA chimeras to improve the bioavailability of siRNA. We used a Systematic Evolution of Ligands through Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) approach to obtain RNA aptamers with modified bases that bind albumin with high affinity. We then fused the aptamers directly to an siRNA to generate the chimera structure. These aptamer-siRNA chimeras are stable in serum, exhibit potent gene knockdown capabilities in vitro, and display extended circulation time in vivo. We suggest that this albumin-binding aptamersiRNA chimera approach is a promising strategy for drug delivery applications.

bioengineering↗