Lei Miao, PhD | Peking University; Mi Deng, PhD; Zhitao Ying, PhD
Competition Sponsor: Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
Awardee Year: 2024
Aging is an inevitable part of the life process that significantly impacts an individual’s health and quality of life. The clearance of senescent cells accumulated in the body is an effective anti-aging strategy that is gaining increasing attention. However, existing methods for clearing senescent cells have their limitations: small molecule drugs may have off-target toxicity; cell therapies targeting specific senescence markers such as NKG2D are expensive and can have serious side effects; while mRNA-based in vivo CAR T therapies have the advantages of good targeting, low cost, and safety and controllability, they currently rely on antibody-modified delivery carriers, which may cause side effects such as T cell exhaustion. In response to these challenges, this project is dedicated to developing a biomimetic lipid delivery system that does not depend on antibody modification to efficiently deliver mRNA to T cells, activate the production of anti-aging CAR T cells in the body, and achieve the specific clearance of senescent cells.