Haiyin Liu

Abstract T cells are critically important to many diseases but are traditionally difficult to transfect. We hypothesise that the delivery of therapeutic cargo to T cells can be improved by targeting nanoparticles to surface receptors that undergo rapid receptor-mediated endocytosis.

1 Introduction During thymocyte development, thymic selection generates a T cell repertoire poised to eliminate foreign material with minimal reactivity to self. Positive selection occurs when CD4+CD8+ (double positive, DP) thymocytes are committed to the CD8 or CD4 T cell lineage based upon viable T cell receptor (TCR) engagement with MHC I or MHC II, respectively. Negative selection deletes potentially harmful auto-reactive thymocytes that express TCRs with high affinity for self-antigen.

1 Introduction The rapid advancement of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology has reshaped the drug delivery landscape across the pharmaceutical industry, helping to realise the huge potential of nucleic acid vaccines and therapeutics.[1] The explosion of interest in LNPs has prompted the development of numerous new LNP formulations to try and improve mRNA delivery.[2] Typically, the efficiency of these formulations is assessed by quantifying the level of protein expression derived from the mRNA.