Engineering carrier nanoparticles with biomimetic moieties for improved intracellular targeted delivery of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines

Abstract Biological membrane-engineered lipid nanoparticles (LNP) have shown enormous potential as vehicles for drug delivery due to their outstanding biomimetic properties. To make these nanoparticles more adaptable to complex biological systems, several methods and cellular sources have been adopted to introduce biomembrane-derived moieties onto LNP and provide the latter with more functions while preserving their intrinsic nature. In this review, we focus on LNP decoration with specific regard to mRNA therapeutics and vaccines. The bio-engineering approach exploits a variety of biomembranes for functionalization, such as those derived from red blood cells, white blood cells, cancer cells, platelets, exosomes, and others. Biomembrane engineering could greatly enhance efficiency in targeted drug delivery, treatment, and diagnosis of cancer, inflammation, immunological diseases, and a variety of pathologic conditions. These membrane-modification techniques are expected to advance biomembrane-derived LNP into wider applications in the future.