Control of backbone chemistry and chirality boost oligonucleotide splice switching activity.

Although recent regulatory approval of splice-switching oligonucleotides (SSOs) for the treatment of neuromuscular disease such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy has been an advance for the splice-switching field, current SSO chemistries have shown limited clinical benefit due to poor pharmacology. To overcome limitations of existing technologies, we engineered chimeric stereopure oligonucleotides with phosphorothioate (PS) and phosphoryl guanidine-containing (PN) backbones. We demonstrate that these chimeric stereopure oligonucleotides have markedly improved pharmacology and efficacy compared with PS-modified oligonucleotides, preventing premature death and improving median survival from 49 days to at least 280 days in a dystrophic mouse model with an aggressive phenotype. These data demonstrate that chemical optimization alone can profoundly impact oligonucleotide pharmacology and highlight the potential for continued innovation around the oligonucleotide backbone. More specifically, we conclude that chimeric stereopure oligonucleotides are a promising splice-switching modality with potential for the treatment of neuromuscular and other genetic diseases impacting difficult to reach tissues such as the skeletal muscle and heart.

Nano-Ghosts: Biomimetic membranal vesicles, technology and characterization.

Currently, nano-carriers for anti-cancer drug delivery are complex systems, which struggle with immunogenicity and enhanced permeability effect (EPR)-related problems that halt the clinical translation of many therapeutics. Consequently, a rapidly growing field of research has been focusing on biomimetic nano-vesicles (BNVs) as an effective delivery alternative. Nevertheless, the translation of many BNVs is limited due to scalability problems, inconsistent production process, and insufficient loading efficiency. Here we discuss the process of our previously published BNVs, termed Nano-Ghosts (NGs), which are produced from the membrane of mesenchymal stem cells. We demonstrate the flexibility of the process, while alternating physical methodologies (sonication or extrusion) to produce the NGs while preserving their desired characteristics. We also show that our NGs can be labeled using multiple methods (fluorescence, radiolabeling, and genetic engineering) for tracking and diagnostic purposes. Lastly, we demonstrate that the loading efficiency can be improved by using electroporation to accommodate a range of therapeutics (small molecules, peptides and DNA) that can be delivered by the NGs. Our results emphasize the robustness of the NGs technology, its versatility and a vast range of applications, differentiating it from other BNVs and leading the way towards clinical translation.

Extracellular Matrix Hydrogels Originated from Different Organs Mediate Tissue-Specific Properties and Function.

Porcine extracellular matrix (pECM)-derived hydrogels were introduced, in recent years, aiming to benefit the pECM's microstructure and bioactivity, while controlling the biomaterial's physical and mechanical properties. The use of pECM from different tissues, however, offers tissue-specific features that can better serve different applications. In this study, pECM hydrogels derived from cardiac, artery, pancreas, and adipose tissues were compared in terms of composition, structure, and mechanical properties. While major similarities were demonstrated between all the pECM hydrogels, their distinctive attributes were also identified, and their substantial effects on cell-ECM interactions were revealed. Furthermore, through comprehensive protein and gene expression analyses, we show, for the first time, that each pECM hydrogel supports the spontaneous differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells towards the resident cells of its origin tissue. These findings imply that the origin of ECM should be carefully considered when designing a biomedical platform, to achieve a maximal bioactive impact.

Exon skipping induces uniform dystrophin rescue with dose-dependent restoration of serum miRNA biomarkers and muscle biophysical properties.

Therapies that restore dystrophin expression are presumed to correct Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), with antisense-mediated exon skipping being the leading approach. Here we aimed to determine whether exon skipping using a peptide-phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligonucleotide (PPMO) conjugate results in dose-dependent restoration of uniform dystrophin localization, together with correction of putative DMD serum and muscle biomarkers. Dystrophin-deficient mdx mice were treated with a PPMO (Pip9b2-PMO) designed to induce Dmd exon 23 skipping at single, ascending intravenous doses (3, 6, or 12 mg/kg) and sacrificed 2 weeks later. Dose-dependent exon skipping and dystrophin protein restoration were observed, with dystrophin uniformly distributed at the sarcolemma of corrected myofibers at all doses. Serum microRNA biomarkers (i.e., miR-1a-3p, miR-133a-3p, miR-206-3p, miR-483-3p) and creatinine kinase levels were restored toward wild-type levels after treatment in a dose-dependent manner. All biomarkers were strongly anti-correlated with both exon skipping level and dystrophin expression. Dystrophin rescue was also strongly positively correlated with muscle stiffness (i.e., Young's modulus) as determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanoindentation assay. These data demonstrate that PPMO-mediated exon skipping generates myofibers with uniform dystrophin expression and that both serum microRNA biomarkers and muscle AFM have potential utility as pharmacodynamic biomarkers of dystrophin restoration therapy in DMD.

Nano-ghosts: Novel biomimetic nano-vesicles for the delivery of antisense oligonucleotides.

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) carry an enormous therapeutic potential in different research areas, however, the lack of appropriate carriers for their delivery to the target tissues is hampering their clinical translation. The present study investigates the application of novel biomimetic nano-vesicles, Nano-Ghosts (NGs), for the delivery of ASOs to human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), using a microRNA inhibitor (antimiR) against miR-221 as proof-of-concept. The integration of this approach with a hyaluronic acid-fibrin (HA-FB) hydrogel scaffold is also studied, thus expanding the potential of NGs applications in regenerative medicine. The study shows robust antimiR encapsulation in the NGs using electroporation and the NGs ability to be internalized in MSCs and to deliver their cargo while avoiding endo-lysosomal degradation. This leads to rapid and strong knock-down of miR-221 in hMSCs in vitro, both in 2D and 3D hydrogel culture conditions (>90% and > 80% silencing efficiency, respectively). Finally, in vivo studies performed with an osteochondral defect model demonstrate the NGs ability to effectively deliver antimiR to endogenous cells. Altogether, these results prove that the NGs can operate as stand-alone system or as integrated platform in combination with scaffolds for the delivery of ASOs for a wide range of applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine.

Drug delivery in intervertebral disc degeneration and osteoarthritis: Selecting the optimal platform for the delivery of disease-modifying agents.

Osteoarthritis (OA) and intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) as major cause of chronic low back pain represent the most common degenerative joint pathologies and are leading causes of pain and disability in adults. Articular cartilage (AC) and intervertebral discs are cartilaginous tissues with a similar biochemical composition and pathophysiological aspects of degeneration. Although treatments directed at reversing these conditions are yet to be developed, many promising disease-modifying drug candidates are currently under investigation. Given the localized nature of these chronic diseases, drug delivery systems have the potential to enhance therapeutic outcomes by providing controlled and targeted release of bioactives, minimizing the number of injections needed and increasing drug concentration in the affected areas. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the currently most promising disease-modifying drugs as well as potential drug delivery systems for OA and IVDD therapy.

Hydrogel-based delivery of antimiR-221 enhances cartilage regeneration by endogenous cells.

Articular cartilage is frequently injured by trauma or osteoarthritis, with limited and inadequate treatment options. We investigated a new strategy based on hydrogel-mediated delivery of a locked nucleic acid microRNA inhibitor targeting miR-221 (antimiR-221) to guide in situ cartilage repair by endogenous cells. First, we showed that transfection of antimiR-221 into human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) blocked miR-221 expression and enhanced chondrogenesis in vitro. Next, we loaded a fibrin/hyaluronan (FB/HA) hydrogel with antimiR-221 in combination or not with lipofectamine carrier. FB/HA strongly retained functional antimiR-221 over 14 days of in vitro culture, and provided a supportive environment for cell transfection, as validated by flow cytometry and qRT-PCR analysis. Seeding of hMSCs on the surface of antimiR-221 loaded FB/HA led to invasion of the hydrogel and miR-221 knockdown in situ within 7 days. Overall, the use of lipofectamine enhanced the potency of the system, with increased antimiR-221 retention and miR-221 silencing in infiltrating cells. Finally, FB/HA hydrogels were used to fill defects in osteochondral biopsies that were implanted subcutaneously in mice. FB/HA loaded with antimiR-221/lipofectamine significantly enhanced cartilage repair by endogenous cells, demonstrating the feasibility of our approach and the need to achieve highly effective in situ transfection. Our study provides new evidence on the treatment of focal cartilage injuries using controlled biomaterial-mediated delivery of antimicroRNA for in situ guided regeneration.

Pretreating Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Cancer Conditioned-Media or Proinflammatory Cytokines Changes the Tumor and Immune Targeting by Nanoghosts Derived from these Cells.

Nanoghosts (NGs) are nanovesicles reconstructed from the cytoplasmic membranes of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). By retaining MSC membranes, the NGs retain the ability of these cells to home in on multiple tumors, laying the foundations, thereby, for the development of a targeted drug delivery platform. The susceptibility of MSCs to functional changes, following their exposure to cytokines or cancer-derived conditioned-media (CM), presents the opportunity to modify the NGs by conditioning their source cells. This opportunity is investigated by comparing the membrane protein composition and the tumor uptake of NGs derived from naïve MSCs (N-NG) against conditioned NGs made from MSCs pre-treated with conditioned-media (CM-NG) or with a mix of the proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1ß (Cyto-NG). CM-NGs are found to be more targeted towards immune cells than Cyto- or N-NGs, while Cyto-NGs are the most tumor-targeted ones, with similar immune-targeting capacity as N-NGs but with a higher affinity towards endothelial cells. Proteomic variations were wider in the CM-NGs, with exceptionally higher levels of ICAM-1 compared to N- and Cyto-NGs. From a translational point of view, the data show that the tumor-targeting ability of the NGs, and possibly that of other MSC-derived extracellular vesicles, can be enhanced by simple conditioning of their source cells.

DHEA modulates the effect of cortisol on RACK1 expression via interference with the splicing of the glucocorticoid receptor.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is thought to be an anti-glucocorticoid hormone known to be fully functional in young people but deficient in aged humans. Our previous data suggest that DHEA not only counteracts the effect of cortisol on RACK1 expression, a protein required both for the correct functioning of immune cells and for PKC-dependent pathway activation, but also modulates the inhibitory effect of cortisol on LPS-induced cytokine production. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of DHEA on the splicing mechanism of the human glucocorticoid receptor (GR). EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: The THP1 monocytic cell line was used as a cellular model. Cytokine production was measured by specific elisa. Western blot and real-time RT-PCR were used, where appropriate, to determine the effect of DHEA on GRs, serine/arginine-rich proteins (SRp), and RACK1 protein and mRNA. Small-interfering RNA was used to down-regulate GRß. KEY RESULTS: DHEA induced a dose-related up-regulation of GRß and GRß knockdown completely prevented DHEA-induced RACK1 expression and modulation of cytokine release. Moreover, we showed that DHEA influenced the expression of some components of the SRps found within the spliceosome, the main regulators of the alternative splicing of the GR gene. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These data contribute to our understanding of the mechanism of action of DHEA and its effect on the immune system and as an anti-glucocorticoid agent.