Recent advances in lipid nanoparticles for delivery of nucleic acid, mRNA, and gene editing-based therapeutics

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are becoming popular as a means of delivering therapeutics, including those based on nucleic acids and mRNA. The mRNA-based coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines are perfect ex-amples to highlight the role played by drug delivery systems in advancing human health. The funda-mentals of LNPs for the delivery of nucleic acid-and mRNA-based therapeutics, are well established. Thus, future research on LNPs will focus on addressing the following: expanding the scope of drug de-livery to different constituents of the human body, expanding the number of diseases that can be tar -geted, and studying the change in the pharmacokinetics of LNPs under physiological and pathological conditions. This review article provides an overview of recent advances aimed at expanding the appli-cation of LNPs, focusing on the pharmacokinetics and advantages of LNPs. In addition, analytical tech-niques, library construction and screening, rational design, active targeting, and applicability to gene editing therapy have also been discussed.