Balancing stability and biological activity in microRNA therapeutic design

“RNA therapeutics as a whole have garnered a great deal of attention, and I think it is the next frontier of therapeutics.” Jokūbas Leikauskas, Editor, Nucleic Acid Insights , speaks to Shreyas Iyer, Graduate Student Researcher, Purdue University, about the unique chemical modification challenges involved in stabilizing microRNA therapeutics without disrupting their natural biology, alongside the major delivery hurdles, particularly endosomal escape, facing the field. They close by outlining targeted delivery, endosomal escape, and deeper mechanistic understanding as the key areas poised to advance microRNA therapeutics over the next decade.