EP-4495237-B1 - NOVEL LIPIDS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR THE DELIVERY OF THERAPEUTICS

Inventors

• MANOHARAN, MUTHIAH
• JAYARAMAN, MUTHUSAMY
• RAJEEV, KALLANTHOTTATHIL, G
• ELTEPU, LAXMAN
• ANSELL, STEVEN
• CHEN, JIANXIN

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20091110

Claims (10)

1. A lipid particle comprising: (a) a lipid; and (b) a therapeutic agent that is a nucleic acid; the lipid having the structure or a salt thereof, wherein: R 1 and R 2 are each independently for each occurrence optionally substituted C 10 -C 30 alkyl, optionally substituted C 10 -C 30 alkenyl, optionally substituted C 10 -C 30 alkynyl, or optionally substituted C 10 -C 30 acyl; R 3 is optionally substituted di(alkyl)aminoalkyl; and E is C(O)O or OC(O); wherein the term "substituted" refers to the replacement of one or more hydrogen radicals in a given structure with the radical of a specified substituent selected from the group consisting of halo, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heterocyclyl, thiol, alkylthio, oxo, thioxy, arylthio, alkylthioalkyl, arylthioalkyl, alkylsulfonyl, alkylsulfonylalkyl, arylsulfonylalkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy, aralkoxy, aminocarbonyl, alkylaminocarbonyl, arylaminocarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, haloalkyl, amino, trifluoromethyl, cyano, nitro, alkylamino, arylamino, alkylaminoalkyl, arylaminoalkyl, aminoalkylamino, hydroxy, alkoxyalkyl, carboxyalkyl, alkoxycarbonylalkyl, aminocarbonylalkyl, acyl, aralkoxycarbonyl, carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, sulfonyl, phosphonic acid, aryl, heteroaryl, heterocyclic, and aliphatic, and wherein the specified substituent may be further substituted by replacement of one or more hydrogen radicals in a given structure with the radical of a further substituent selected from the group consisting of halo, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heterocyclyl, thiol, alkylthio, oxo, thioxy, arylthio, alkylthioalkyl, arylthioalkyl, alkylsulfonyl, alkylsulfonylalkyl, arylsulfonylalkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy, aralkoxy, aminocarbonyl, alkylaminocarbonyl, arylaminocarbonyl, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, haloalkyl, amino, trifluoromethyl, cyano, nitro, alkylamino, arylamino, alkylaminoalkyl, arylaminoalkyl, aminoalkylamino, hydroxy, alkoxyalkyl, carboxyalkyl, alkoxycarbonylalkyl, aminocarbonylalkyl, acyl, aralkoxycarbonyl, carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, sulfonyl, phosphonic acid, aryl, heteroaryl, heterocyclic, and aliphatic; provided that when E is C(O)O and R 3 is R 1 and R 2 are not both linoleyl, and provided that the lipid does not have the structure
2. The lipid particle of claim 1, wherein R 3 is substituted di(alkyl)aminoalkyl.
3. The lipid particle of claim 1 or 2, wherein the particle further comprises a neutral lipid and a lipid capable of reducing aggregation.
4. The lipid particle of claim 1 or 2, wherein the nucleic acid is an mRNA sequence that codes for a therapeutically useful polypeptide.
5. The lipid particle of claim 1 or 2, wherein the nucleic acid is an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide.
6. The lipid particle of claim 1 or 2, wherein the nucleic acid is selected from the group consisting of an siRNA, an antisense oligonucleotide, a microRNA, an antagomir, an aptamer, and a ribozyme.
7. The lipid particle of claim 6, wherein the nucleic acid is an siRNA.
8. The lipid particle of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the lipid has a pKa of 4 to 7 when incorporated into the lipid particle.
9. The lipid particle of claim 8, wherein the lipid has a pKa of between 5.5 and 6.8 when incorporated into the lipid particle.
10. A pharmaceutical composition comprising a lipid particle of claim 1 or 2 and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, carrier, or diluent.

Description

The present invention relates to the field of therapeutic agent delivery using lipid particles. In particular, the present invention provides lipid particles comprising cationic lipids, which are advantageous for the in vivo delivery of nucleic acids, as well as nucleic acid-lipid particle compositions suitable for in vivo therapeutic use. Therapeutic nucleic acids include, e.g., small interfering RNA (siRNA), micro RNA (miRNA), antisense oligonucleotides, ribozymes, plasmids, immune stimulating nucleic acids, antisense, antagomir, antimir, microRNA mimic, supermir, U1 adaptor, and aptamer. These nucleic acids act via a variety of mechanisms. In the case of siRNA or miRNA, these nucleic acids can down-regulate intracellular levels of specific proteins through a process termed RNA interference (RNAi). Following introduction of siRNA or miRNA into the cell cytoplasm, these double-stranded RNA constructs can bind to a protein termed RISC. The sense strand of the siRNA or miRNA is displaced from the RISC complex providing a template within RISC that can recognize and bind mRNA with a complementary sequence to that of the bound siRNA or miRNA. Having bound the complementary mRNA the RISC complex cleaves the mRNA and releases the cleaved strands. RNAi can provide down-regulation of specific proteins by targeting specific destruction of the corresponding mRNA that encodes for protein synthesis. The therapeutic applications of RNAi are extremely broad, since siRNA and miRNA constructs can be synthesized with any nucleotide sequence directed against a target protein. To date, siRNA constructs have shown the ability to specifically down-regulate target proteins in both in vitro and in vivo models. In addition, siRNA constructs are currently being evaluated in clinical studies. However, two problems currently faced by siRNA or miRNA constructs are, first, their susceptibility to nuclease digestion in plasma and, second, their limited ability to gain access to the intracellular compartment where they can bind RISC when administered systemically as the free siRNA or miRNA. These double-stranded constructs can be stabilized by incorporation of chemically modified nucleotide linkers within the molecule, for example, phosphothioate groups. However, these chemical modifications provide only limited protection from nuclease digestion and may decrease the activity of the construct. Intracellular delivery of siRNA or miRNA can be facilitated by use of carrier systems such as polymers, cationic liposomes or by chemical modification of the construct, for example by the covalent attachment of cholesterol molecules. However, improved delivery systems are required to increase the potency of siRNA and miRNA molecules and reduce or eliminate the requirement for chemical modification. Antisense oligonucleotides and ribozymes can also inhibit mRNA translation into protein. In the case of antisense constructs, these single stranded deoxynucleic acids have a complementary sequence to that of the target protein mRNA and can bind to the mRNA by Watson-Crick base pairing. This binding either prevents translation of the target mRNA and/or triggers RNase H degradation of the mRNA transcripts. Consequently, antisense oligonucleotides have tremendous potential for specificity of action (i.e., down-regulation of a specific disease-related protein). To date, these compounds have shown promise in several in vitro and in vivo models, including models of inflammatory disease, cancer, and HIV (reviewed in Agrawal, Trends in Biotech. 14:376-387 (1996)). Antisense can also affect cellular activity by hybridizing specifically with chromosomal DNA. Advanced human clinical assessments of several antisense drugs are currently underway. Targets for these drugs include the bcl2 and apolipoprotein B genes and mRNA products. Immune-stimulating nucleic acids include deoxyribonucleic acids and ribonucleic acids. In the case of deoxyribonucleic acids, certain sequences or motifs have been shown to illicit immune stimulation in mammals. These sequences or motifs include the CpG motif, pyrimidine-rich sequences and palindromic sequences. It is believed that the CpG motif in deoxyribonucleic acids is specifically recognized by an endosomal receptor, toll-like receptor 9 (TLR-9), which then triggers both the innate and acquired immune stimulation pathway. Certain immune stimulating ribonucleic acid sequences have also been reported. It is believed that these RNA sequences trigger immune activation by binding to toll-like receptors 6 and 7 (TLR-6 and TLR-7). In addition, double-stranded RNA is also reported to be immune stimulating and is believe to activate via binding to TLR-3. One well known problem with the use of therapeutic nucleic acids relates to the stability of the phosphodiester internucleotide linkage and the susceptibility of this linker to nucleases. The presence of exonucleases and endonucleases in serum results in the rapid digestion of nucleic acids p