Nucleic acid strategies for infectious disease treatments: The nanoparticle-based oral delivery route

Fengqian Chen; Qi Liu; Yang Xiong; Li Xu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.984981

Nucleic acid strategies for infectious disease treatments: The nanoparticle-based oral delivery route

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Aug 29:13:984981. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.984981. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Fengqian Chen¹, Qi Liu², Yang Xiong³, Li Xu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Translational Research Program, Department of Anesthesiology and Center for Shock Trauma Anesthesiology Research, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States.
² Department of Dermatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States.
³ College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Anorectal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Therapies based on orally administrated nucleic acids have significant potential for the treatment of infectious diseases, including chronic inflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-associated with the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and infectious and acute contagious diseases like coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is because nucleic acids could precisely regulate susceptibility genes in regulating the pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines expression related to the infections. Unfortunately, gene delivery remains a major hurdle due to multiple intracellular and extracellular barriers. This review thoroughly discusses the challenges of nanoparticle-based nucleic acid gene deliveries and strategies for overcoming delivery barriers to the inflammatory sites. Oral nucleic acid delivery case studies were also present as vital examples of applications in infectious diseases such as IBD and COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; IBD; nanoparticles; nucleic acid; targeted delivery.

Publication types

Review