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Emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens present a unique challenge for anti-viral therapeutic development. Anti-viral approaches with high flexibility and rapid production times are essential for combating these high-pandemic risk viruses. CRISPR-Cas technologies have been extensively repurposed to treat a variety of diseases, with recent work expanding into potential applications against viral infections. However, delivery still presents a major challenge for these technologies. Lipid-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (LCMSNs) offer an attractive delivery vehicle for a variety of cargos due to their high biocompatibility, tractable synthesis, and amenability to chemical functionalization. Here, we report the use of LCMSNs to deliver CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) that target the Niemann–Pick disease type C1 gene, an essential host factor required for entry of the high-pandemic risk pathogen Ebola virus, demonstrating an efficient reduction in viral infection. We further highlight successful in vivo delivery of the RNP-LCMSN platform to the mouse liver via systemic administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous silica-based materials have burgeoning applications ranging from fillers and additives, to adsorbents, catalysts, and recently therapeutic agents and vaccines in nanomedicine. The preponderance of these materials is made by sol-gel processing wherein soluble silica precursors are reacted to form amorphous networks composed of siloxane bonds. The facile sol-gel approach allows for an unlimited variety of binary tertiary and more complex chemical compositions including organic ligands and networks resulting in so-called organic-inorganic hybrid materials. Here, a brief review of the recent progress in sol-gel-derived silica materials prepared as particles, thin films, biosilica/silica bioreplicas (of molecules, cells and organisms), and their related preparation, properties, and bioapplications is provided. First, it highlights the recent achievements of mesoporous silica nanoparticles in biomedical applications, including therapeutic agent delivery, multimodal imaging and theranostics, and bone tissue engineering and repair. Second, the research in evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA)-based mesostructured silica thin films and cell-directed EISA in bio/nano interfaces for various bioapplications, such as bioactive coatings, biosensing, and living cell immobilization, has been reviewed. Third, the pioneering work in biomimetic silicification/ immobilization of biomolecules and bio-organisms and silica bioreplication of complex bio-organisms is summarized. Finally, it is concluded with personal perspectives on the directions of future work on this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous silica‐based materials have burgeoning applications ranging from fillers and additives, to adsorbents, catalysts, and recently therapeutic agents and vaccines in nanomedicine. The preponderance of these materials is made by sol–gel processing wherein soluble silica precursors are reacted to form amorphous networks composed of siloxane bonds. The facile sol–gel approach allows for an unlimited variety of binary tertiary and more complex chemical compositions including organic ligands and networks resulting in so‐called organic–inorganic hybrid materials. Here, a brief review of the recent progress in sol–gel‐derived silica materials prepared as particles, thin films, biosilica/silica bioreplicas (of molecules, cells and organisms), and their related preparation, properties, and bioapplications is provided. First, it highlights the recent achievements of mesoporous silica nanoparticles in biomedical applications, including therapeutic agent delivery, multimodal imaging and theranostics, and bone tissue engineering and repair. Second, the research in evaporation‐induced self‐assembly (EISA)‐based mesostructured silica thin films and cell‐directed EISA in bio/nano interfaces for various bioapplications, such as bioactive coatings, biosensing, and living cell immobilization, has been reviewed. Third, the pioneering work in biomimetic silicification/immobilization of biomolecules and bio‐organisms and silica bioreplication of complex bio‐organisms is summarized. Finally, it is concluded with personal perspectives on the directions of future work on this field.The most recent progress in sol–gel‐derived silica materials prepared as particles, thin films, biosilica, and silica bioreplicas (of molecules, cells, and organisms) is reviewed. This includes their related preparation, properties, and potential biological and biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CRISPR gene editing technology is strategically foreseen to control diseases by correcting underlying aberrant genetic sequences. In order to overcome drawbacks associated with viral vectors, the establishment of an effective non-viral CRISPR delivery vehicle has become an important goal for nanomaterial scientists. Herein, we introduce a monosized lipid-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticle (LC-MSN) delivery vehicle that enables both loading of CRISPR components [145 µg ribonucleoprotein (RNP) or 40 µg plasmid/mg nanoparticles] and efficient release within cancer cells (70%). The RNP-loaded LC-MSN exhibited 10% gene editing in both in vitro reporter cancer cell lines and in an in vivo Ai9-tdTomato reporter mouse model. The structural and chemical versatility of the mesoporous silica core and lipid coating along with framework dissolution-assisted cargo delivery open new prospects towards safe CRISPR component delivery and enhanced gene editing. After the discovery of CRISPR gene-correcting technology in bacteria. The translation of this technology to mammalian cells may change the face of cancer therapy within the next years. This was first made possible through the use of viral vectors; however, such systems limit the safe translation of CRISPR into clinics because its difficult preparation and immunogenicity. Therefore, biocompatible non-viral nanoparticulate systems are required to successfully deliver CRISPR into cancer cells. The present study presents the use of biomimetic lipid-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles showing successful delivery of CRISPR ribonucleoprotein and plasmid into HeLa cervical and A549 lung cancer cells as well as successful gene editing in mice brain. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines intra- and intercellular trafficking of mesoporous silica nanoparticles along microtubular highways, with an emphasis on intercellular bridges connecting interphase and telophase cells. The study of nanoparticle trafficking within and between cells during all phases of the cell cycle is relevant to payload destination and dilution, and impacts delivery of therapeutic or diagnostic agents. Super-resolution stochastic optical reconstruction and sub-airy unit image acquisition, the latter combined with Huygens deconvolution microscopy, enable single nanoparticle and microtubule resolution. Combined structural and functional data provide enhanced details on biological processes, with an example of mitotic inheritance during cancer cell trivision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite encouraging outcomes of the eight FDA approved drugs in lessening obesity burden, they have been associated with side effects caused by the lack of direct action on the adipose tissue. Therefore, a nanomedicine is reported that promotes the transformation of local fat‐storage white adipocytes, associated with obesity, into thermogenic adipocytes, indicative of enhanced metabolism, to both human cells and mice. This nanomedicine consisting of a lipid‐silica nanohybrid that allows accommodation of the natural supplement forskolin has resulted in successful browning of mature human adipocytes in vitro through upregulating thermogenesis biomarkers on mature human adipocytes and in vivo in mice tissue (achieving 400‐ and 80‐fold increases in UCP1 and Cox7A1, respectively), while significantly enhancing glucose uptake and lipolysis in an acute fashion and significantly preventing weight gain in high fat diet (60% HFD) mice compared to other treatments including liposomal medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]