Development and Evaluation of Antisense shRNA-Encoding Plasmid Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Against 5-Alpha Reductase Activity

In the 2018 study, researchers developed solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) to deliver shRNA-encoding plasmids targeting 5-α reductase, an enzyme associated with hair loss conditions like androgenic alopecia. The SLNs effectively bound and protected the plasmid from degradation, with particle sizes of 62.65 nm and zeta potential values of 12.9 mV. In vitro experiments showed no significant cytotoxicity in DU-145 prostate cancer cells at concentrations of 0.3-0.6 µg/well and demonstrated the ability of the SLN:p5a-Red vector to reduce 5-α reductase enzyme levels by approximately 65.1% in these cells. The study concluded that the SLN:p5a-Red vector system could be a promising approach for gene therapy targeting 5-α reductase-related diseases.