New mRNA Tech Could Transform Lung Therapies

American researchers have developed a groundbreaking injectable therapy to deliver mRNA directly to the lower lungs, potentially transforming treatment for chronic lung diseases and accelerating healing in damaged lung tissue.

- Rhythma Kaul

NEW DELHI:

The research team from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine demonstrated that combining mRNA with a specialized lipid nanoparticle could reach areas of the lungs previously inaccessible to conventional treatments, according to their study published in Nature Communications.

"The lungs are hard-to-treat organs because both permanent and temporary damage often happen in the deeper regions where medication does not easily reach," said study author Elena Atochina-Vasserman, research assistant professor at Penn and scientist at the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation.

The breakthrough in the paper builds on the rapid work in mRNA as a platform for therapeutics and inoculation since the landmark mRNA Covid-19 doses. Those doses earned Perelman School professor and a co-author of this study, Drew Weissman, and his former colleague Katalin Kariko the Nobel prize in medicine in 2023.