Systemic delivery of MicroRNA mimics with polyethylenimine elevates pulmonary microRNA levels, but lacks pulmonary selectivity

Kenny Schlosser; Mohamad Taha; Yupu Deng; Duncan J Stewart

doi:10.1177/2045893217750613

Systemic delivery of MicroRNA mimics with polyethylenimine elevates pulmonary microRNA levels, but lacks pulmonary selectivity

Pulm Circ. 2018 Jan-Mar;8(1):2045893217750613. doi: 10.1177/2045893217750613. Epub 2017 Dec 18.

Authors

Kenny Schlosser¹, Mohamad Taha^{1

2}, Yupu Deng¹, Duncan J Stewart^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ 1 10055 Regenerative Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
² 2 Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ 3 Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Reversing pathologic alterations in vascular microRNA (miRNA) expression represents a potential therapeutic strategy for pulmonary hypertension. While polyethylenimine (PEI) has previously been shown to be an effective vehicle for vascular lung-directed delivery of plasmid DNA, it remains unclear whether this utility is generalizable to miRNAs. Here we show that despite elevated lung levels, the intravenous infusion of PEI-miRNA mimic complexes fails to provide lung-selective delivery in rats.

Keywords: lung delivery; microRNA; mimic; polyethylenimine; pulmonary hypertension.