Cyclosporine A-loaded lipid nanoparticles in inflammatory bowel disease

Cyclosporine A (CsA) is a well-known immunosuppressive agent used as rescue therapy in severe steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis (UC). However, toxicity issues associated with CsA when administered in its commercially available formulations have been reported in clinical practice. Since nanotechnology has been proposed as a promising strategy to improve safety and efficacy in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral administration of CsA-loaded lipid nanoparticles (LN) in the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model using Sandimmune Neoral® as reference. The results showed that the formulations used did not decrease colon inflammation in terms of myeloperoxidase activity (MPO), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α expression, or histological scoring in the acute stage of the disease. However, further studies are needed in order to corroborate the efficacy of these formulations in the chronic phase of the disease.