Self-assembling protein nanoparticles for cytosolic delivery of nucleic acids and proteins

Intracellular delivery of biomacromolecules is hampered by low efficiency and cytotoxicity. Here we report the development of elastin-based nanoparticles for therapeutic delivery (ENTER), a recombinant elastin-like polypeptide (ELP)-based delivery system for effective cytosolic delivery of biomacromolecules in vitro and in vivo. Through iterative design, we developed fourth-generation ELPs fused to cationic endosomal escape peptides (EEPs) that self-assemble into pH-responsive micellar nanoparticles and enable cytosolic entry of cargo following endocytic uptake. In silico screening of α-helical peptide libraries led to the discovery of an EEP (EEP13) with 48% improved protein delivery efficiency versus a benchmark peptide. Our lead ELP-EEP13 showed similar or superior performance compared to lipid-based transfection reagents in the delivery of mRNA-encoded, DNA-encoded and protein-form Cre recombinase and CRISPR gene editors as well as short interfering RNAs to multiple cell lines and primary cell types. Intranasal administration of ELP-EEP13 combined with Cre protein achieved efficient editing of lung epithelial cells in reporter mice.