Cited by 948RNA Interference and Gene DeliveryNanoparticle-Based Drug DeliveryCellular transport and secretion

Efficiency of siRNA delivery by lipid nanoparticles is limited by endocytic recycling

Open access
Sahay, Gaurav, Querbes, William, Alabi, Christopher, Eltoukhy, Ahmed, Sarkar, Sovan, Zurenko, Christopher, Karagiannis, Emmanouil, Love, Kevin +6 more·2013·Nature Biotechnology

Abstract

Despite efforts to understand the interactions between nanoparticles and cells, the cellular processes that determine the efficiency of intracellular drug delivery remain unclear. Here we examine cellular uptake of short interfering RNA (siRNA) delivered in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) using cellular trafficking probes in combination with automated high-throughput confocal microscopy. We also employed defined perturbations of cellular pathways paired with systems biology approaches to uncover protein-protein and protein-small molecule interactions. We show that multiple cell signaling effectors are required for initial cellular entry of LNPs through macropinocytosis, including proton pumps, mTOR and cathepsins. siRNA delivery is substantially reduced as ≅70% of the internalized siRNA undergoes exocytosis through egress of LNPs from late endosomes/lysosomes. Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) is shown to be an important regulator of the major recycling pathways of LNP-delivered siRNAs. NPC1-deficient cells show enhanced cellular retention of LNPs inside late endosomes and lysosomes, and increased gene silencing of the target gene. Our data suggest that siRNA delivery efficiency might be improved by designing delivery vehicles that can escape the recycling pathways.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/nbt.2614

Cites

41 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Only a small amount of lipid nanoparticles may be able to escape from the endosome.

    “Indeed, only a small amount of lipid nanoparticles may be able to escape from the endosome137–139.”

    From Lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery (2021) · cites this paper as [137]

  • Following cellular internalization, lipid nanoparticles are usually trapped in endosomal compartments.

    “Following cellular internalization, lipid nanoparticles are usually trapped in endosomal compartments137–139.”

    From Lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery (2021) · cites this paper as [137]

  • The transporter Niemann-Pick Type C-1 located on late endolysosomes is responsible for exocytosis of a large fraction of internalized (si)RNA LNPs, strongly reducing cytosolic delivery.

    “For instance, the transporter Niemann-Pick Type C-1, located on late endolysomes, was found to be responsible for the exocytosis of a large fraction of internalized (si)RNA LNPs, hence strongly reducing the cytosolic delivery [121].”

    From Three decades of messenger RNA vaccine development (2019) · cites this paper as [121]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sahay, G., Querbes, W., Alabi, C., Eltoukhy, A., Sarkar, S., Zurenko, C., Karagiannis, E., Love, K., Chen, D., Zoncu, R., Buganim, Y., Schroeder, A., Langer, R., & Anderson, D. G.
Affiliations
  • Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research At MIT (US)
  • Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (United States) (US)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
  • Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (US)
  • Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (US)
Corresponding author
Anderson, Daniel G
Venue
Nature Biotechnology
Published
2013-06-23
Volume
31
Issue
7
Pages
653-658
ISSN
  • 0733-222X (ISSN-L)
  • 1087-0156
  • 1546-1696
OpenAlex
W1483024467
Cited by
948
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 108 · 2025: 113 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 55 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 56 · 2016: 68 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 19
FWCI
29.14
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Biotechnology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
  • PMC
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (4r37eb000244-34)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HHSN268201000045C)
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB000244, R37-EB000244)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
  • Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular transport and secretion
Keywords
siRNA delivery, lipid nanoparticles, endocytic recycling, macropinocytosis, NPC1, late endosomes, lysosomes, exocytosis, mTOR, cathepsins, proton pump, cellular uptake, gene silencing, intracellular trafficking
MeSH terms
Niemann-Pick C1 Protein, Carrier Proteins, Endocytosis, Humans, Lipids, Membrane Glycoproteins, Signal Transduction, Gene Transfer Techniques, Microscopy, Confocal, Gene Silencing, RNA, Small Interfering, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Metal Nanoparticles, TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review