SANS characterization of Melanosomes-derived hybrid particles designed for RNA delivery

Melanosomes are cell-secreted vesicles carrying melanin to keratinocytes. Being inherently designed to target skin cells, they are interesting candidates for the development of melanosomes-based nanovectors for the treatment of skin-related diseases, such as psoriasis, skin cancer and genetic skin diseases. In this framework, we are recently working on melanosome-derived vesicles, which have shown promising ability to transfect RNA to keratinocytes. With this SANS proposal we aim at (i) improving the structural and physicochemical characterization of these hybrid systems, (ii) structurally characterize RNA binding ability of melanosomes-based vectors (iii) determine the mechanism of interaction of melanosomes-derived hybrid vesicles with bio-relevant interfaces, i.e., lipid vesicles mimicking the composition of keratinocytes. Overall, the results of the study will contribute at improving the fundamental knowledge on melanosomes, thus fostering their application in RNA delivery and, more in general in the biomedical field.