Monitoring Translation Activity of mRNA-Loaded Nanoparticles in Mice.

Targeting mRNA to eukaryotic cells is an emerging technology for basic research and provides broad applications in cancer immunotherapy, vaccine development, protein replacement, and in vivo genome editing. Although a plethora of nanoparticles for efficient mRNA delivery exists, in vivo mRNA targeting to specific organs, tissue compartments, and cells remains a major challenge. For this reason, methods for reporting the in vivo targeting specificity of different mRNA nanoparticle formats will be crucial. Here, we describe a straightforward method for monitoring the in vivo targeting efficiency of mRNA-loaded nanoparticles in mice. To achieve accurate mRNA delivery readouts, we loaded lipoplex nanoparticles with Cre-recombinase-encoding mRNA and injected these into commonly used Cre reporter mouse strains. Our results show that this approach provides readouts that accurately report the targeting efficacy of mRNA into organs, tissue structures, and single cells as a function of the used mRNA delivery system. The method described here establishes a versatile basis for determining in vivo mRNA targeting profiles and can be systematically applied for testing and improving mRNA packaging formats.

Epulis granulomatosa as an oral manifestation of Klippel-Trénaunay syndrome.

The Klippel-Trénaunay syndrome (KTS) was first described by Klippel and Trénaunay in 1900. It is characterized by the triad of hemihypertrophy of soft and hard tissue, naevus flammeus and venous varicosity in the affected area. Though all oral tissues may be affected, only 5% of KTS show manifestations in the head and neck region. Only three cases are described with an oral manifestation, showing gingival overgrowth clinically and histologically corresponding to a pyogenic granuloma. It is still uncertain whether the combination of gingival fibromatosis and KTS is significant or coincidental. We report about a 25-year-old patient with KTS and recidivous gingival fibromatosis, clinically and histologically corresponding to an epulis fibromatosa in a case report. It is suggested that this occurrence is significant.