{"doi":"10.1016/j.omtn.2023.02.031","title":"Delivery of anti-microRNA-21 by lung-targeted liposomes for pulmonary fibrosis treatment","abstract":"Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic lung disorder with a low survival rate. Pulmonary fibrosis is one of the complications of COVID-19 and has a high prevalence in COVID-19 patients. Currently, no effective therapies other than lung transplantation are available to cure IPF and post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that mediate the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis, thus making them potent drug candidates for this serious disease. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) promotes not only the differentiation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts but also epithelial-mesenchymal transition, both of which have been proposed as fundamental processes in pulmonary fibrosis development. Delivery of anti-miR-21 to block the miR-21-associated fibrogenic pathways represents a promising therapy for pulmonary fibrosis. However, microRNA treatment is challenged by quick degradation of RNA in blood, poor cellular uptake, and off-target effects. To overcome these challenges, we developed a lung-targeted, cationic liposome formulation to encapsulate anti-miR-21, enhance its delivery efficiency, and improve the therapeutic efficacy. We optimized the liposome formulation and demonstrated the anti-fibrotic effects using both in vitro and in vivo lung fibrosis models. Our results showed that anti-miR-21 delivered by cationic liposomes suppressed myofibroblast differentiation, reduced the synthesis of extracellular matrix, and inhibited fibrosis progression.","journal":"Molecular Therapy — Nucleic Acids","year":2023,"id":320353,"datarank":0.5897738449086489,"base_score":3.9318256327243257,"endowment":3.9318256327243257,"self_citation_contribution":0.5897738449086489,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5897738449086489,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":50,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9578,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1030933,"name":"Yafei Su","orcid":"0000-0001-6412-6559","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1030934,"name":"Isaac Hsia","orcid":"0000-0002-1996-5043","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":743222,"name":"Ying Xu","orcid":"0000-0002-8496-9681","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385260,"name":"Vui King Vincent–Chong","orcid":"0000-0003-1242-7709","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1030935,"name":"Wilfrido Mojica","orcid":"0000-0003-0314-2226","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368991,"name":"Mukund Seshadri","orcid":"0000-0001-8729-9532","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571625,"name":"Ruogang Zhao","orcid":"0000-0002-5351-0843","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":457417,"name":"Yun Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-6926-777X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649843,"name":"Lingyue Yan","orcid":"0000-0002-0908-9115","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":55,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:07:22.377587Z","pmid":"36919116","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}