Lipid Nanoparticles Outperform Electroporation in Delivering Therapeutic HPV DNA Vaccines.

Therapeutic HPV vaccines that induce potent HPV-specific cellular immunity and eliminate pre-existing infections remain elusive. Among various candidates under development, those based on DNA constructs are considered promising because of their safety profile, stability, and efficacy. However, the use of electroporation (EP) as a main delivery method for such vaccines is notorious for adverse effects like pain and potentially irreversible muscle damage. Moreover, the requirement for specialized equipment adds to the complexity and cost of clinical applications. As an alternative to EP, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that are already commercially available for delivering mRNA and siRNA vaccines are likely to be feasible. Here, we have compared three intramuscular delivery systems in a preclinical setting. In terms of HPV-specific cellular immune responses, mice receiving therapeutic HPV DNA vaccines encapsulated with LNP demonstrated superior outcomes when compared to EP administration, while the naked plasmid vaccine showed negligible responses, as expected. In addition, SM-102 LNP M exhibited the most promising results in delivering candidate DNA vaccines. Thus, LNP proves to be a feasible delivery method in vivo, offering improved immunogenicity over traditional approaches.

Associations of MYF5 gene polymorphisms with meat quality traits in different domestic pig (Sus scrofa) populations

The MYF5 gene is first inducibly expressed in muscle cell during embryonic muscle development and plays an important role in regulating the differentiation of skeletal muscle precursors. In this study we used PCR-RFLP to investigate two pig (Sus scrofa) populations (n = 302) for two MYF5 gene polymorphisms, a previously unreported novel Met-Leu shift single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) MYF5/Hsp92II located on exon 1 and the previously identified intron 1 MYF5/HinfI SNP. Haplotype and association analysis showed that haplotypes of the two SNPs were significantly associated with drip loss rate (DLR, p < 0.05), water holding capacity (WHC, p < 0.05), biceps femoris meat color value (MCV2, p < 0.05), biceps femoris marbling score (MM2, p < 0.01), longissimus dorsi intramuscular fat percentage (IMF, p < 0.01) and longissimus dorsi Water moisture content (WM, p < 0.01) in the population 2. However, further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.