Even if RNA-based therapeutics have been under development for over 30 years, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that brought them into the limelight, with the rapid development of mRNA-based vaccines against the SARS-Cov2 virus by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer. And lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs), used to efficiently deliver mRNA, are key players of this technology.

Are you familiar with the term lipotoxicity ?

If so, I am sure you have come across it before. Today, let’s investigate the phenomenon a little more,
what are the links between lipotoxicity, cellular senescence and mitochondrial dysfunction?

Lipotoxicity, a metabolic syndrome resulting from lipid accumulation in the cell, is known to be one of the causes of mitochondrial dysfunction. It also accelerates the degenerative process of cellular senescence and subsequent carcinogenesis. Here, we would like to introduce some recent studies on this topic.

Which hepatocytes should you choose for your ADME Studies?

What are hepatocytes and why are they important?

Hepatocytes are the functional parenchymal cell of the liver. They are important for ADME/DMPK scientists because they’re the cells that carry out the bulk of metabolism for xenobiotic compounds and play a major role in detoxifying the body. Understanding how these functions affect your compound is essential in preclinical drug development.

Hepatocytes make up about 80% of the liver’s volume, but only represent approximately 60% of the total cell population. This basically means that they’re big, and because of their size and other physical properties, we can take advantage of these characteristics to purify them away from other cell types in the liver.

The potential of proteins for the treatment of diseases

Protein therapeutics represents a powerful field for the treatment of many diseases, having shown its potential for several years; especially since the ‘boom’ of recombinant protein production. In this post, we invite you to see the benefits of a new nanotechnology.

When compared to the traditional small molecule therapeutic approach, proteins bring both high biocompatibility and biodegradability. These facts are associated with a high safety profile. When considering activity, proteins present a much more targeted activity, directly related to their specific interaction with the target of interest. However, these molecules can suffer from unfolding and short half-life, due to enzymatic degradation, all associated with loss of activity. Their poor membrane permeability impedes intracellular delivery. All these drawbacks can be overcome using delivery vehicles that can carry, protect, and deliver the cargo.