In recent year, cationic liposomes have gained a lot of attention for siRNA delivery. Despite this, intracellular barriers as endosomal escape and cytosolic delivery of siRNA still represent a challeng, as well as the cytotoxicity due to cationic lipids. To address these issues, we developed four liposomal formulations, composed of two different cationic lipids (DOTAP and DC-Cholesterol) and different ratio of co-lipids (cholesterol and DOPE). The objective is to dissect these impacts on siRNA efficacy and cytotoxicity. Liposomes were complexed to siRNA at six different N/P molar ratios, physico-chemical properties were characterized, and consequently, N/P 2.5, 5 and 10 were selected for in vitro experiments. We have shown that cytotoxicity is influenced by the N/P ratio, the concentration of cationic lipid, as well as the nature of the cationic lipid. For instance, cell viability decreased by 70% with liposomes composed of DOTAP/Cholesterol/DOPE 1/0.75/0.5 at a N/P ratio 10, whereas the same formulation at a N/P ratio of 2.5 was safe. Interestingly, we have observed differences in terms of mRNA knock-down efficiency, whereas the transfection rate was quite similar for each formulation. Liposomes containing 50% of DOPE induced a mRNA silencing of around 80%. This study allowed us to highlight crucial parameters in order to develop lipoplexes which are safe, and which induce an efficient intracytoplasmic release of siRNA.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is used in Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs) formulations to confer stealth properties and is traditionally anchored in membranes by a lipid moiety whose length significantly impacts the LNPs fate in vivo. C18 acyl chains are efficiently anchored in the membrane, while shorter C14 lipids are quickly desorbed and replaced by a protein corona responsible for the completely different fate of LNPs. In this context, a method to predict the biological behavior of LNPs depending on the lipid-PEG dissociation was developed using the Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) method in serum. Two formulations of siRNA-containing LNPs were prepared including CSL3 or SM-102 lipids and were grafted with different lipids-PEG (C18, C14 lipids-PEG, and Ceramide-PEG). The impact of the lipid-PEG on the interactions between LNPs and serum components was demonstrated by monitoring the mean particle size and the concentration over time. In vitro, these formulations demonstrated low toxicity and efficient gene knockdown on tumor MDA-MB-231 cells, but serum was found to significantly impact the efficiency of C18-PEG-based LNPs, while it did not impact the efficiency of C14-PEG-based LNPs. The NTA method demonstrated the ability to discriminate between the behaviors of LNPs according to serum proteins’ interactions. CSL3 lipid and Cer-PEG were confirmed to have promise for LNP formulation.