Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 19, 2026

Efficient Transfection of In vitro Transcribed mRNA in Cultured Cells Using Peptide-Poloxamine Nanoparticles
Published on: August 17, 2022
Nonviral delivery of self-amplifying RNA vaccines
Andrew J Geall1, Ayush Verma, Gillis R Otten
1Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. andrew.geall@novartis.com
Abstract:
Despite more than two decades of research and development on nucleic acid vaccines, there is still no commercial product for human use. Taking advantage of the recent innovations in systemic delivery of short interfering RNA (siRNA) using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), we developed a self-amplifying RNA vaccine. Here we show that nonviral delivery of a 9-kb self-amplifying RNA encapsulated within an LNP substantially increased immunogenicity compared with delivery of unformulated RNA. This unique vaccine technology was found to elicit broad, potent, and protective immune responses, that were comparable to a viral delivery technology, but without the inherent limitations of viral vectors. Given the many positive attributes of nucleic acid vaccines, our results suggest that a comprehensive evaluation of nonviral technologies to deliver self-amplifying RNA vaccines is warranted.
Related Concept Videos
Experimental RNAi
Viruses with RNA Genomes
Retrovirus Life Cycles
siRNA - Small Interfering RNAs
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the ATP-dependent...
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
RACE - Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends
Since the...
