Step-by-Step Assembly Simulation of Lipid Nanoparticles with Encapsulated Nucleic Acid

Abstract The formation of two-, three-, and four-component lipid nanoparticles containing DNA was studied. It was shown that although two-component particles composed of a phospholipid and a cationic surfactant are stable, the efficiency of DNA encapsulation in such particles does not exceed 5%. The introduction of cholesterol into the system increases the membrane rigidity and the encapsulation efficiency to 40%. When introducing a lipid conjugated with polyethylene glycol, not only the aggregation stability of particles increases, but also the efficiency of DNA encapsulation increases to 60%.