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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Testing the In Vitro and In Vivo Efficiency of mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticles Formulated by Microfluidic Mixing
Published on: January 20, 2023
On the Influence of Fabrication Methods and Materials for mRNA-LNP Production: From Size and Morphology to Internal
Dongdong Bi1, Christoph Wilhelmy2, Dennis Unthan1
1Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), Leiden University, Einsteinweg 55, Leiden, 2333 CC, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) remains the most advanced platform for messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery. To date, mRNA LNPs synthesis is mostly performed by mixing lipids and mRNA with microfluidics. In this study, a cost-effective microfluidic setup for synthesizing mRNA LNPs is developed. It allows to fine-tune the LNPs characteristics without compromising LNP properties. It is compared with a commercial device (NanoAssemblr) and ethanol injection and the influence of manufacturing conditions on the performance of mRNA LNPs is investigated. LNPs prepared by ethanol injection exhibit broader size distributions and more inhomogeneous internal structure (e.g., bleb-like substructures), while other LNPs show uniform structure with dense cores. Small angel X-ray scattering (SAXS) data indicate a tighter interaction between mRNA and lipids within LNPs synthesized by custom device, compared to LNPs produced by NanoAssemblr. Interestingly, the better transfection efficiency of polysarcosine (pSar)-modified LNPs correlates with a higher surface roughness than that of PEGylated ones. The manufacturing approach, however, shows modest influence on mRNA expression in vivo. In summary, the home-developed cost-effective microfluidic device can synthesize LNPs and represents a potent alternative to NanoAssemblr. The preparation methods show notable effect on LNPs' structure but a minor influence on mRNA delivery in vitro and in vivo.
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