Peptide Amphiphile Nanostructures for Targeting of Atherosclerotic Plaque and Drug Delivery.

Abstract

Co-assembled peptide amphiphile nanofibers designed to target atherosclerotic plaque and enhance cholesterol efflux are shown to encapsulate and deliver a liver X receptor agonist to increase efflux from murine macrophages in vitro. Fluorescence microscopy reveals that the nanofibers, which display an apolipoprotein-mimetic peptide, localize at plaque sites in LDL receptor knockout mice with or without the encapsulated molecule, while nanofibers displaying a scrambled, non-targeting peptide sequence do not demonstrate comparable binding. These results show that nanofibers functionalized with apolipoprotein-mimetic peptides may be effective vehicles for intravascular targeted drug delivery to treat atherosclerosis.

• Authors: Miranda M So, Neel A Mansukhani, Erica B Peters, Mazen S Albaghdadi, Zheng Wang, Charles M Rubert Pérez, Melina R Kibbe, Samuel I Stupp
• Journal: Advanced biosystems (Adv Biosyst) Vol. 2 Issue 3 (Mar 2018) ISSN: 2366-7478 [Print] Germany
• PMID: 30666317 (Publication Type: Journal Article)