DNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (DNA-LNPs): a platform technology to treat common chronic diseases

Introduction: After the unprecedented success of the COVID-19 vaccine, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) became the dominant delivery vehicle in nanomedicine and genetic medicine. For over a decade, LNPs have been used to deliver mRNA, but mRNA has two major limitations: i) a half-life of hours; ii) no natural genetic encoding for cell-type-specificity. Switching to a DNA cargo could solve these problems, but it has long known that DNA-LNPs suffer two problems of their own: a) DNA as a cargo is toxic; b) DNA does not express well.