Development of Nucleic Acid Delivery System

Dear Colleagues,

With the technological development of gene therapy, the RNA interference, gene editing and mRNA therapy, therapeutic nucleic acids are increasingly being developed for the treatment of various diseases, including plasmid DNA, small interfering RNA (siRNA), mRNA, etc. These therapeutic nucleic acid molecules belong to biological macromolecules, and their efficiency of uptake and absorption by cells is very low, which impacts their efficacy. Moreover, these nucleic acid molecules are easy to degrade in vivo, so there is an urgent need for in vivo protection and delivery by vectors. In early-stage gene therapy, researchers develop a variety of recombinant virus vectors, which can carry therapeutic gene fragments, infect cells and regulate gene expression in cells. However, recombinant virus vectors still have side effects, such as an immune response and mutagenicity in vivo, which have limited the development of clinical applications of gene therapy. The side effects of viral vectors directly promote researchers to search for nonviral delivery vectors in the field of chemical materials to achieve the efficient delivery of plasmid DNA. With the development of functional materials, increasingly more advanced nonviral nucleic acid delivery vectors have been developed, such as active-targeting vectors, stimuli-responsive vectors, etc. These vectors play a key role in the protection and delivery of nucleic acids in the therapy of plasmid DNA, siRNA and mRNA. It is worth mentioning that lipid nanoparticles play a vital role as mRNA delivery vectors in the clinical application of anti-COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Although there are many kinds of nucleic acid delivery vectors, there are few examples that can deliver mRNA in the same way as lipid nanoparticles and convert it into clinical therapeutic products. In the field of nucleic acid delivery, the development of safe and efficient delivery vectors that can be transformed into clinical products has always been an eternal hot spot and difficulty, requiring us to further explore this research field. Therefore, we would like to invite you to provide reviews and original articles focusing on the latest progress in therapeutic nucleic acid delivery systems, which will be published as part of the Special Issue entitled "Development of Nucleic Acid Delivery System". Special topics include, but are not limited to: nucleic acid delivery system, nonviral vectors, gene delivery, siRNA delivery, gene-editing system delivery, mRNA delivery, codelivery of small-molecule drugs and nucleic acids, the clinical transformation of nucleic acid delivery systems, etc.

We look forward to your contribution.

Dr. Wei Huang
Guest Editor

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