A Two‐Pronged Pulmonary Gene Delivery Strategy: A Surface‐Modified Fullerene Nanoparticle and a Hypotonic Vehicle

Abstract

Inhaled gene therapy poses a unique potential of curing chronic lung diseases, which are currently managed primarily by symptomatic treatments. However, it has been challenging to achieve therapeutically relevant gene transfer efficacy in the lung due to the presence of numerous biological delivery barriers. Here, we introduce a simple approach that overcomes both extracellular and cellular barriers to enhance gene transfer efficacy in the lung in vivo. We endowed tetra(piperazino)fullerene epoxide (TPFE)‐based nanoparticles with non‐adhesive surface polyethylene glycol (PEG) coatings, thereby enabling the nanoparticles to cross the airway mucus gel layer and avoid phagocytic uptake by alveolar macrophages. In parallel, we utilized a hypotonic vehicle to facilitate endocytic uptake of the PEGylated nanoparticles by lung parenchymal cells via the osmotically driven regulatory volume decrease (RVD) mechanism. We demonstrate that this two‐pronged delivery strategy provides safe, wide‐spread and high‐level transgene expression in the lungs of both healthy mice and mice with chronic lung diseases characterized by reinforced delivery barriers.

Abstract

Tetra(piperazino)fullerene (TPFE)‐based nanoparticles (NPs), surface‐coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG), were engineered. The PEGylation allows the NPs to avoid interactions with mucin glycoproteins and phagocytic uptake by macrophages. After the NPs access the target lung cells, a hypotonic vehicle solution enhances their endocytosis via the osmotically driven regulatory volume effect, thereby providing highly efficient transgene expression.