UMMS Affiliation
RNA Therapeutics Institute; Program in Molecular Medicine; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Publication Date
2020-08-20
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Biochemistry | Chemistry | Digestive System Diseases | Molecular Biology | Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides | Structural Biology
Abstract
Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have revolutionized the treatment of liver diseases. However, robust siRNA delivery to other tissues represents a major technological need. Conjugating lipids (e.g. docosanoic acid, DCA) to siRNA supports extrahepatic delivery, but tissue accumulation and gene silencing efficacy are lower than that achieved in liver by clinical-stage compounds. The chemical structure of conjugated siRNA may significantly impact invivo efficacy, particularly in tissues with lower compound accumulation. Here, we report the first systematic evaluation of the impact of siRNA scaffold-i.e. structure, phosphorothioate (PS) content, linker composition-on DCA-conjugated siRNA delivery and efficacy in vivo. We found that structural asymmetry (e.g. 5- or 2-nt overhang) has no impact on accumulation, but is a principal factor for enhancing activity in extrahepatic tissues. Similarly, linker chemistry (cleavable versus stable) altered activity, but not accumulation. In contrast, increasing PS content enhanced accumulation of asymmetric compounds, but negatively impacted efficacy. Our findings suggest that siRNA tissue accumulation does not fully define efficacy, and that the impact of siRNA chemical structure on activity is driven by intracellular re-distribution and endosomal escape. Fine-tuning siRNA chemical structure for optimal extrahepatic efficacy is a critical next step for the progression of therapeutic RNAi applications beyond liver.
Keywords
Small interfering RNAs, siRNAs, liver diseases, delivery, chemical structure
Rights and Permissions
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1093/nar/gkaa595
Source
Biscans A, Caiazzi J, Davis S, McHugh N, Sousa J, Khvorova A. The chemical structure and phosphorothioate content of hydrophobically modified siRNAs impact extrahepatic distribution and efficacy. Nucleic Acids Res. 2020 Aug 20;48(14):7665-7680. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa595. PMID: 32672813; PMCID: PMC7430635. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Nucleic acids research
Related Resources
PubMed ID
32672813
Repository Citation
Biscans A, Caiazzi J, Davis SM, McHugh N, Sousa J, Khvorova A. (2020). The chemical structure and phosphorothioate content of hydrophobically modified siRNAs impact extrahepatic distribution and efficacy. Open Access Articles. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa595. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/4337
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Biochemistry Commons, Chemistry Commons, Digestive System Diseases Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides Commons, Structural Biology Commons