New liposomes for mRNA vaccines have been developed in Russia.

A group of researchers from the M.V. Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technologies at RTU MIREA has developed special liposomes – nanostructured capsules that efficiently deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into mammalian cells and muscle tissues of laboratory animals.

The research team from the M.V. Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technologies at RTU MIREA has created effective cationic liposomes with various compositions for delivering mRNA to both cultured mammalian cells (HEK293T, HeLa, DC2.4) and muscle tissues of live mice. The results of this work have been published in the high-ranking journal Pharmaceutics (Q1).

“By monitoring the production of reporter proteins encoded in mRNA, both at endpoint and in real-time, we discovered,” says Mikhail Maslov, director of the M.V. Lomonosov Institute of Fine Chemical Technologies at RTU MIREA, “that cationic liposomes mediate a delay in protein biosynthesis on one hand, while on the other hand, they provide highly efficient and sustained reporter activity in the cells.”

Experiments on cells and mice were conducted in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology at Moscow State University. In mouse experiments, the use of special lipids achieved high efficiency in producing the desired protein, peaking on the third day after intramuscular injection. Notably, bioluminescence was observed only at the injection site in the tail muscles of the thigh, indicating local expression of the targeted model gene.

The developed liposomal systems for mRNA delivery are promising for prophylactic applications where sustained synthesis of therapeutic proteins is required, and they open new possibilities for mRNA-based therapies.