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MIT research: Delivering RNA with tiny sponge-like spheres
Date:2/27/2012

For the past decade, scientists have been pursuing cancer treatments based on RNA interference a phenomenon that offers a way to shut off malfunctioning genes with short snippets of RNA. However, one huge challenge remains: finding a way to efficiently deliver the RNA.

Most of the time, short interfering RNA (siRNA) the type used for RNA interference is quickly broken down inside the body by enzymes that defend against infection by RNA viruses.

"It's been a real struggle to try to design a delivery system that allows us to administer siRNA, especially if you want to target it to a specific part of the body," says Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor in Engineering at MIT.

Hammond and her colleagues have now come up with a novel delivery vehicle in which RNA is packed into microspheres so dense that they withstand degradation until they reach their destinations. The new system, described Feb. 26 in the journal Nature Materials, knocks down expression of specific genes as effectively as existing delivery methods, but with a much smaller dose of particles.

Such particles could offer a new way to treat not only cancer, but also any other chronic disease caused by a "misbehaving gene," says Hammond, who is also a member of MIT's David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. "RNA interference holds a huge amount of promise for a number of disorders, one of which is cancer, but also neurological disorders and immune disorders," she says.

Lead author of the paper is Jong Bum Lee, a former postdoc in Hammond's lab. Postdoc Jinkee Hong, Daniel Bonner PhD '12 and Zhiyong Poon PhD '11 are also authors of the paper.

Genetic disruption

RNA interference is a naturally occurring process, discovered in 1998, that allows cells to fine-tune their genetic expression. Genetic information is normally carried from DNA in the nucleus to ribosomes, cellular structures where proteins are ma
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Contact: Kimberly Allen
allenkc@mit.edu
617-253-2702
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Source:Eurekalert

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