RNA nanoparticles new generation drug for cancer therapy

RNA nanotechnology has made considerable progress since its initiation in 1998. Some of the most exciting developments happened just inside the most recent 5 years. Nanotechnology is a field with high applicability in fundamental and translational medicine. The properties of DNA shown by RNA nanoparticles and being utilized in immunotherapies now-a-days.

RNA nanoparticles new generation drug for cancer therapy

RNA is a naturally occurring macromolecule has versatile structures and can assemble itself with ease. These RNA complexes due to their inter and intra molecular interactions can create nanoparticles. This approach has given its basis to RNA nanotechnology.

RNA complexes can combine with RNA modules such as siRNA, miRNA and aptamers to form nano scale particles which have their specific functions for cell entry and cell binding. Involving the RNA nanotechnology, RNA nanoparticles have the ability to create targeted drugs for cancer therapy. These drugs thus formulated are third generation drugs which are target specific and have a controllable size.

RNA nano systems are conjugated with lipids, polymers, gold and dendrimers to target them to specific tumor cells. The RNA therapeutics can be used for the treatment of cancer as it has special physio chemical properties due to the presence of RNA motifs such as siRNA, miRNA, riboswitches flougenic RNA imaging and RNA aptamers.

RNA nanoparticles show specific properties, like they are: uniformly sized, proper stoichiometry, polyvalent in nature, less immunogenic and less toxic. These RNA nanoparticles being target specific and having eligible properties as cancer therapeutics have certain hindrances such as their cost production and yield.

Cancer therapy and RNA modules

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy techniques are unable to find out the difference between cancerous and non-cancerous cells and have severe toxic and side effects. Therefore nanoparticles have high therapeutic efficacy and have low toxicity.

The multivalency of the RNA nanoparticles allows for combining therapeutic (e.g. siRNA/miRNA/drug), targeting (e.g. aptamer and chemical ligand) and detection (e.g. radionuclide, fluorophore) modules, all in one nanoparticle. The potential of the pRNA platform for specific delivery of siRNA to cancer receptor targets and the silencing of particular genes has been demonstrated in breast cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, leukemia, and ovarian cancer as well as viral infection.

RNA nanotechnology is a new approach for cancer therapy

As of now, several RNA aptamers are accessible for focusing on particular cell surface receptors taken after by resulting disguise of RNA nanoparticles: lymphoma (e.g., CD19) cells breast carcinoma (e.g., EGFR, HER2 and 3), ovarian carcinoma (e.g., E-selectin), prostate (e.g., PSMA), colon carcinoma (e.g., EpCAM) and glioblastoma (e.g., EGFRvIII) are additionally for viral infected cells, for example, HIV (e.g., CD4).

Focusing on tumor metastasis is another region in which RNA nanoparticles have indicated considerable promise. The use of folic acid as a targeting agent, RNA nanoparticles are capable to instantaneously target the cancerous colon cells in the major sites of metastasis including the liver, lungs and lymph hubs.

The drug delivery systems targets at delivering the preferred concentration within the therapeutic range (at target site), terminating the reduced side effects and inconvenience in patients. Many chemotherapeutic agents are not easily dissolved in water e.g. Paclitaxel is a water insoluble anti-cancer drug and has been widely used in treating breast, ovarian and other carcinomas due to strong apoptotic consequences on cancerous cells.

It is important that nanovehicles, for example, polymeric micelles and liposomes can upgrade water dissolvability of such hydrophobic anticancer drugs by steadily fusing them in the hydrophobic microenvironment. Similarly, epitome in these nanovehicles enhances their bioavailability and helpful viability in the circulatory system following fundamental administration.

The field of RNA nanotechnology is yet developing, however, will play an inevitably essential role in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. RNA nanoparticles are promising as new generation of drug for cancer treatment.

Conventional drugs with moderately low molecular weight are quickly cleared by the kidney, which reduces the compelling concentration at the target site. Contrasted with these small particle drugs, and administration of non vehicle combined drugs significantly increases the course time in the circulation system so adequate quantity of drugs can achieve the target tissue.

In addition to the capacity to bind particular targets, aptamers have equally been appeared to be utilized as a therapeutic drug, e.g., Pegaptanib, is the first aptamer-based drug which was approved by FDA. Pegaptanib particularly binds to vascular endothelial growth factor 165, a protein that plays an important role in angiogenesis.

Another aptamer that is in clinical preliminaries, AS1411, particularly focuses on the malignancy cell surface protein nucleolin, a bcl-2 mRNA binding protein intricate in cell proliferation and prompts the apoptosis. Particularly, magnetic nanoparticles made out of iron oxide, manganese oxide, and other doped composite nanomaterials have been generally explored for cancer imaging because of their tremendous differentiation impacts by MRI.

Systematic infusion of the thermodynamically and chemically stable RNA nanoparticles in mice shown that the RNA nanoparticles unequivocally and particularly bound to tumor with least accumulation in liver, lungs, or some other fundamental organs or tissues. Because RNA is a chemical substance accordingly, the administrative procedures are required to be more ideal contrasted with protein-based clinical reagents.

Conclusion:

RNA nanotechnology has made considerable progress since its initiation in 1998. Some of the most exciting developments happened just inside the most recent 5 years. Nanotechnology is a field with high applicability in fundamental and translational medicine. The properties of DNA shown by RNA nanoparticles and being utilized in immunotherapies now-a-days.

The field of RNA nanotechnology is yet developing, however, will play an inevitably essential role in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nanotechnology and synthetic biology. RNA nanoparticles are promising as new generation of drug for cancer treatment.

This article is jointly written by Roeha Akhtar and Samra Javed from Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore.