Engineered Polymer-siRNA Polyplexes Provide Effective Treatment of Lung Inflammation.

Abstract

Uncontrolled inflammation is responsible for acute and chronic diseases in the lung. Regulating expression of pro-inflammatory genes in pulmonary tissue using small interfering RNA (siRNA) is a promising approach to combatting respiratory diseases. However, siRNA therapeutics are generally hindered at the cellular level by endosomal entrapment of delivered cargo and at the organismal level by inefficient localization in pulmonary tissue. Here we report efficient anti-inflammatory activity <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> using polyplexes of siRNA and an engineered cationic polymer (PONI-Guan). PONI-Guan/siRNA polyplexes efficiently deliver siRNA cargo to the cytosol for highly efficient gene knockdown. Significantly, these polyplexes exhibit inherent targeting to inflamed lung tissue following intravenous administration <i>in vivo</i>. This strategy achieved effective (>70%) knockdown of gene expression <i>in vitro</i> and efficient (>80%) silencing of TNF-α expression in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged mice using a low (0.28 mg/kg) siRNA dosage.