A breath of fresh air: targeted non-viral in vivo gene correction in the mammalian lung

In a recent study published in Science,¹ Sun and colleagues showcase the power and potential of lung SORT LNPs, i.e., lipid nanoparticles that upon systemic delivery in mice specifically and efficiently target cells in the lung, most likely facilitated by their binding to plasma vitronectin and uptake via the vitronectin receptor. Most remarkably, when engineered to deliver a base editor, peripheral injection of SORT LNPs enabled highly efficient gene correction in lung stem cells, whole lung and trachea in a mouse model of cystic fibrosis, illustrating the enormous promise of this novel technology for human patients suffering from this devastating disease (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) bind to vitronectin, which facilitates their uptake by vitronectin receptors (VtnR) in the lungs. The figure illustrates the efficiency of gene editing in various lung cell types and the restoration of CFTR function. This figure was created with BioRender

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