Nano-ghosts: Novel biomimetic nano-vesicles for the delivery of antisense oligonucleotides

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) carry an enormous therapeutic potential in different research areas, however, the lack of appropriate carriers for their delivery to the target tissues is hampering their clinical translation. The present study investigates the application of novel biomimetic nano-vesicles, Nano-Ghosts (NGs), for the delivery of ASOs to human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), using a microRNA inhibitor (antimiR) against miR-221 as proof-of-concept. The integration of this approach with a hyaluronic acid-fibrin (HA-FB) hydrogel scaffold is also studied, thus expanding the potential of NGs applications in regenerative medicine. The study shows robust antimiR encapsulation in the NGs using electroporation and the NGs ability to be internalized in MSCs and to deliver their cargo while avoiding endo-lysosomal degradation. This leads to rapid and strong knock-down of miR-221 in hMSCs in vitro, both in 2D and 3D hydrogel culture conditions (>90% and > 80% silencing efficiency, respectively). Finally, in vivo studies performed with an osteochondral defect model demonstrate the NGs ability to effectively deliver antimiR to endogenous cells. Altogether, these results prove that the NGs can operate as stand-alone system or as integrated platform in combination with scaffolds for the delivery of ASOs for a wide range of applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine.