In an advance that could lead to new treatments for lung disease, MIT researchers have now designed an inhalable form of mRNA. This aerosol could be administered directly to the lungs to help treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, the researchers say.

"We think the ability to deliver mRNA via inhalation could allow us to treat a range of different disease of the lung," says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Chemical

Engineering, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), and the senior author of the study.

The researchers showed that they could induce lung cells in mice to produce a target protein—in this case, a bioluminescent protein. If the same success rate can be achieved with therapeutic proteins, that could be high enough to treat many lung diseases, the researchers say.