‘Don’t Eat Me’ Marker Boosts Efficiency of mRNA Therapy

Messenger RNA (mRNA) therapies could be more effective in reaching their targets when their rides, lipid nanoparticles, are marked with a protein called CD47, that transmits a “Don’t eat me” signal to immune cells, according to a study by researchers led by Hamideh Parhiz, PharmD, PhD, and Tyler Ellis Papp, both of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. In animal models, the new approach resulted in more efficient targeting with fewer off-target effects such as liver inflammation.