Bispecific antibody targeting of lipid nanoparticles

Abstract

Lipid nanoparticles (LNP) are the most clinically advanced non-viral gene delivery system. While progress has been made for enhancing delivery, cell specific targeting remains a challenge. Targeting moieties such as antibodies can be chemically-conjugated to LNPs however, this approach is complex and has challenges for scaling up. Here, we developed an approach to generate antibody-conjugated LNPs that utilizes a bispecific antibody (bsAb) as the targeting bridge. As a docking site for the bsAb, we generated LNPs with a short epitope, derived from hemagglutinin antigen (HA), embedded in the PEG component of the particle (LNPHA). We generated bsAb in which one domain binds HA and the other binds different cell surface proteins, including PD-L1, CD4, CD5, and SunTag. Non-chemical conjugation of the bsAb and LNP resulted in a major increase in the efficiency and specificity of transfecting cells expressing the cognate target. LNP/bsAb mediated a 4-fold increase in in vivo transfection of PD-L1 expressing cancer cells, and a 26-fold increase in ex vivo transfection of quiescent primary human T cells. Additionally, we created a universal bsAb recognizing HA and anti-rat IgG2, enabling LNP tethering to off-the-shelf antibodies such as CD4, CD8, CD20, CD45, and CD3. By utilizing a molecular dock and bsAb technology, these studies demonstrate a simple and effective strategy to generate antibody-conjugated LNPs, enabling precise and efficient mRNA delivery.