Pancreatic-targeted lipid nanoparticles based on organ capsule filtration
Nature
by Jiaqi LeiFebruary 26, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Pancreatic diseases, such as diabetes and pancreatic cancer, are among the most challenging to treat due to their complexity and high mortality rates. A groundbreaking study introduces a novel approach using pancreatic-targeted lipid nanoparticles (AH-LNP) for precise mRNA delivery to the pancreas. These nanoparticles leverage organ capsule filtration and receptor-mediated endocytosis to selectively accumulate in pancreatic tissues, enhancing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing off-target effects.
The AH-LNP platform was designed to address the longstanding issue of delivering therapies directly to the pancreas. Unlike traditional methods that often result in systemic exposure and unintended side effects, AH-LNPs dynamically adjust their size upon protein assembly, allowing them to bypass barriers and target the pancreas specifically. This mechanism enables efficient genome editing by delivering Cas9 mRNA and single-guide RNA (sgRNA), as demonstrated in
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Originally published on Nature on 2/26/2026