Poole, J. A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2025

Inhalable Perfluorocarbon Nanocapsules for RNA-based Immunotherapeutic Treatment of Lung Metastases

Inhalation RNA therapy offers to transform treatment of pulmonary diseases, yet mucus trapping, immune clearance, and navigation of heterogeneous lung tissue architecture still prevents RNA from reaching its target cells. Here, we develop perfluorocarbon (PFC) RNA nanocapsules that show negligible immune clearance, minimal inflammatory response, and efficient mucus transport, while passively homing to lung epithelial and tumor cells. After a single aerosolized dose in orthotopic lung metastasis model, more than 60% of tumor cells and most type II alveolar and bronchial epithelial cells internalized the nanocapsules, with observed pulmonary retention exceeding 48 h. The nanocapsule provoke negligible cytokine release, enabling repeated dosing. Treatment with therapeutic miR34-a suppresses metastatic outgrowth, potentiates anti-tumor immunity, and almost doubles median survival relative to control paclitaxel chemotherapy. By combining unique PFC disposition with RNA versatility, the delivery platform overcomes the main biological barriers for inhalable RNA medicines and opens a translatable path for treating diverse pulmonary diseases.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2020

High-Throughput Analysis of Lung Immune Cells in a Murine Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Lung Disease

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated lung disease is a leading cause of mortality in RA, yet the mechanisms linking lung disease and RA remain unknown. Using an established murine model of RA-associated lung disease combining collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) with organic dust extract (ODE)-induced airway inflammation, differences among lung immune cell populations were analyzed by single cell RNA-sequencing. Additionally, four lung myeloid-derived immune cell populations including macrophages, monocytes/macrophages, monocytes, and neutrophils were isolated by fluorescence cell sorting and gene expression was determined by NanoString analysis. Unsupervised clustering revealed 14 discrete clusters among Sham, CIA, ODE, and CIA+ODE treatment groups: 3 neutrophils (inflammatory, resident/transitional, autoreactive/suppressor), 5 macrophages (airspace, differentiating/recruited, recruited, resident/interstitial, and proliferative airspace), 2 T-cells (differentiating and effector), and a single cluster each of inflammatory monocytes, dendritic cells, B-cells and natural killer cells. Inflammatory monocytes, autoreactive/suppressor neutrophils, and recruited/differentiating macrophages were predominant with arthritis induction (CIA and CIA+ODE). By specific lung cell isolation, several interferon-related and autoimmune genes were disproportionately expressed among CIA and CIA+ODE (e.g. Oasl1, Oas2, Ifit3, Gbp2, Ifi44, and Zbp1), corresponding to RA and RA-associated lung disease. Monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells were reduced, while complement genes (e.g. C1s1 and Cfb) were uniquely increased in CIA+ODE mice across cell populations. Recruited and inflammatory macrophages/monocytes and neutrophils expressing interferon-, autoimmune-, and complement-related genes might contribute towards pro-fibrotic inflammatory lung responses following airborne biohazard exposures in setting of autoimmune arthritis and could be predictive and/or targeted to reduce disease burden.

immunology↗