Modular Supramolecular Polycations Enable Efficient Delivery of Diverse RNA Therapeutics and Vaccines

We describe a modular, diverse, and customizable supramolecular-materials platform that can deliver nucleic acids in vitro and in vivo. The chemistries deployed enable the generation of multiple supramolecular polycations, which can associate with RNA to form polyelectrolyte complexes, but which have the unique feature of reversible cross-links, via host-guest interactions of monomers that display aromatic amino acid termini with cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]). Families of supramolecular polymers can be prepared by simple variation in monomer structure, enabling the tuning of properties. We demonstrate that these supramolecular polyelectrolyte complexes with RNA can be prepared easily via automatable procedures to generate nanoparticles that meet Critical Quality Attributes for manufactured RNA vaccines and therapeutics. We show that these materials can deliver RNA to a range of cell types, displaying reporter-protein expression at levels equivalent to, or greater than, commercial transfection reagents, with no acute adverse phenotypic effects. Finally, we demonstrate the success of our materials platform across a range of nucleic acid types, with expression of mRNA within tumors of an orthotopic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer mouse model, knockdown of a kinase implicated in cancer progression via siRNA, and effective protection against H1N1 influenza virus challenge in mice following injections of self-amplifying RNA.