Single-dose mRNA therapy via biomaterial-mediated sequestration of overexpressed proteins

Nonviral mRNA delivery is an attractive therapeutic gene delivery strategy, as it achieves efficient protein overexpression in vivo and has a desirable safety profile. However, mRNA’s short cytoplasmic half-life limits its utility to therapeutic applications amenable to repeated dosing or short-term overexpression. Here, we describe a biomaterial that enables a durable in vivo response to a single mRNA dose via an “overexpress and sequester” mechanism, whereby mRNA-transfected cells locally overexpress a growth factor that is then sequestered within the biomaterial to sustain the biologic response over time. In a murine diabetic wound model, this strategy demonstrated improved wound healing compared to delivery of a single mRNA dose alone or recombinant protein. In addition, codelivery of anti-inflammatory proteins using this biomaterial eliminated the need for mRNA chemical modification for in vivo therapeutic efficacy. The results support an approach that may be broadly applicable for single-dose delivery of mRNA without chemical modification.