Lyophilization provides long-term stability for a lipid nanoparticle-formulated, nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine.

Lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-formulated nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccines have proven to be very successful in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. They are effective, safe, and can be produced in large quantities. However, the long-term storage of mRNA-LNP vaccines without freezing is still a challenge. Here, we demonstrate that nucleoside-modified mRNA-LNPs can be lyophilized, and the physicochemical properties of the lyophilized material do not significantly change for 12 weeks after storage at room temperature and for at least 24 weeks after storage at 4°C. Importantly, we show in comparative mouse studies that lyophilized firefly luciferase-encoding mRNA-LNPs maintain their high expression, and no decrease in the immunogenicity of a lyophilized influenza virus hemagglutinin-encoding mRNA-LNP vaccine was observed after 12 weeks of storage at room temperature or for at least 24 weeks after storage at 4°C. Our studies offer a potential solution to overcome the long-term storage-related limitations of nucleoside-modified mRNA-LNP vaccines.

Lipid nanoparticles for nucleic acid delivery: Current perspectives.

Nucleic Acid (NA) based therapeutics are poised to disrupt modern medicine and augment traditional pharmaceutics in a meaningful way. However, a key challenge to advancing NA therapies into the clinical setting and on to the market is the safe and effective delivery to the target tissue and cell. Lipid Nanoparticles (LNP) have been extensively investigated and are currently the most advanced vector for the delivery of NA drugs, as evidenced by the approval of Onpattro for treatment of Amyloidosis in the US and EU in 2018. This article provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art for LNP technology. We discuss key advances in the design and development of LNP, leading to a broad range of therapeutic applications. Finally, the current status of this technology in clinical trials and its future prospects are discussed.