Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 19: Poster VII

BP 19.8: Poster

Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 14:00–16:00, P2/3OG

mRNA secondary structure on cationic lipid membrane surfaces — •Mohd Ibrahim and Nadine Schwierz — Department of Theoritical Biophysics, Max Planck Insitute of Biophysics,Max-von-Laue-Str. 3, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany

RNA based therapeutics have emerged as promising candidates for treating currently untreatable diseases like cancer or diabetes. Since RNA is highly charged and degradable it needs a carrier to be transported into the cells. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) hold great promise and have been extensively studied for such purposes. However, the delivery efficiency of existing LNPs is very low and the structure of RNA-LNP systems remains poorly understood. A powerful technique to elucidate the structure of nanoparticles are scattering experiments (SAXS and SANS). However, interpreting scattering intensities for a complex systems like LNP is non-trivial. Molecular dynamic simulations in conjunction with scattering experiments can serve as a powerful method to overcome this hurdle. In this work, we use coarse-grained MD simulations to elucidate the conformations of mRNA on the cationic lipid membrane surface. Using existing secondary prediction tools to model mRNA structures, we show that SAXS intensities can be used to differentiate between different RNA conformations on cationic lipid membrane surfaces. By comparing our scattering intensities with experiments we will be able to identify the most probable RNA conformation on the lipid membrane surface or inside lipid nanoparticle thus aiding our understanding of RNA loaded LNP structures.