PEGylated Multimeric RNA Nanoparticles for siRNA Delivery in Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts millions of people globally, however currently there are no approved therapeutics that address long-term brain health. In order to create a technology that is relevant for siRNA delivery in TBI after systemic administration, sub-100 nm nanoparticles with rolling circle transcription (RCT) are synthesized and isolated in order improve payload delivery into the injured brain. Unlike conventional RCT-based RNA particles, in this method, sub-100 nm RNA nanoparticles (RNPs) are isolated. To enhance RNP pharmacokinetics, RNPs are synthesized with modified bases in order to graft polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the RNPs. PEGylated RNPs (PEG-RNPs) do not significantly impact their knockdown activity in vitro and lead to longer blood half-life after systemic administration and greater accumulation into the injured brain in a mouse model of TBI. In order to demonstrate RNA interference (RNAi) activity of RNPs, knockdown of the inflammatory cytokine TNF-α in injured brain tissue after systemic administration of RNPs in a mouse model of TBI is demonstrated. In summary, small sub-100 nm multimeric RNA nanoparticles are synthesized and isolated that can be modified using accessible chemistry in order to create a technology suitable for systemic RNAi therapy for TBI.