Scientists Deliver siRNA Therapy to Lung; Delivery Technology Successfully Blocks SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Mice; Potentially Adaptable for Multiple Lung Diseases

Scientists at UMass Chan Medical School have developed a technology to deliver gene therapy directly to lung tissue through intranasal administration, a development that could potentially create a new class of treatments for lung disease. Published on March 9, 2023 in PNAS, the study by a multidisciplinary team of RNA biologists, chemical biologists, immunologists, and virologists describes the delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules locally to lung tissue. It is the first demonstration that multimeric siRNA molecules can be taken up into the lung after intranasal administration and achieve safe and robust genetic silencing. More importantly, the platform technology is adaptable for other pulmonary diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and respiratory viruses. The open-access article is titled “Divalent siRNAs Are Bioavailable in the Lung and Efficiently Block SARS-CoV-2 Infection.”