ROS-responsive biomimetic nanoparticles for potential application in targeted anti-atherosclerosis

Abstract The development of nanomedicines provides new opportunities for the treatment of atherosclerosis (AS) due to their great advantages such as the improved drug solubility, enhanced bioavailability and reduced side effects. Despite these advantages, nanomedicines are still facing some challenges. The problems remain in the short circulation life, lack of specific targeting and poor drug release controllability. In order to overcome the shortages of conventional nanomedicines, the combination of biomimetic strategy with smart nanoagents has been proposed. In light with the high reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in AS microenvironment and the fact that macrophages play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AS, we fabricated ROS-responsive biomimetic nanoparticles (NPs), which camouflaged macrophage membrane (MM) on ROS-responsive NPs loaded with rapamycin (RNPs) for potential application in AS therapy. The resulting ROS-responsive biomimetic NPs (MM/RNPs) exhibited favorable hydrodynamic size with negative surface charge, retained the functional proteins from MM, and showed ROS-responsive drug release. Because of the biomimetic camouflaging on surface, MM/RNPs could effectively escape from macrophages uptake and target to inflammatory endothelial cells. Meanwhile, MM/RNPs could inhibit the proliferation of macrophages and smooth muscle cells in vitro. Furthermore, the MM-coated NPs were found to be nontoxic in both cytotoxicity assay and in vivo toxicity evaluation. Consequently, these results demonstrated that MM/RNPs could be a potential candidate of drug delivery system for safe and effective anti-AS applications.