Antitumor Activity of Anti-miR-21 Delivered through Lipid Nanoparticles

The ability of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to deliver nucleic acids have shown a great therapeutic potential to treat a variety of diseases. Here, an optimized formulation of QTsome lipid nanoparticles (QTPlus) is utilized to deliver an anti-miR-21 (AM21) against cancer. The miR-21 downstream gene regulation and antitumor activity is evaluated using mouse and human cancer cells and macrophages. The antitumor activity of QTPlus encapsulating AM21 (QTPlus-AM21) is further evaluated in combination with erlotinib and atezolizumab (ATZ). QTPlus-AM21 demonstrates a superior miR-21-dependent gene regulation and eventually inhibits A549 non-small cell lung cancer growth in vitro. QTPlus-AM21 further induces chemo-sensitization of A549 cells to erlotinib with a combination index of 0.6 in inhibiting A549 cell growth. When systemically administers to MC38 tumor-bearing mouse model, QTPlus-AM21 exhibits an antitumor immune response with over 80% tumor growth inhibition (TGI%) and over twofold and fourfold PD-1 and PD-L1 upregulation in tumors and spleens. The combination therapy of QTPlus-AM21 and ATZ further shows a higher antitumor response (TGI% over 90%) and successfully increases M1 macrophages and CD8 T cells into TME. This study provides new insights into the antitumor mechanism of AM21 and shows great promise of QTPlus-AM21 in combination with chemotherapies and immunotherapies.

Automated summary

Lipid nanoparticles have the potential to deliver nucleic acids for the treatment of various diseases. This study explores the use of an optimized formulation of lipid nanoparticles to deliver an anti-cancer drug and evaluates its anti-tumor activity. The results show that these lipid nanoparticles have the ability to inhibit tumor growth and enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.