Anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10 loaded cRGD liposomes for the targeted treatment of atherosclerosis

AIM

Atherosclerosis (AS) is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease which might lead to myocardial infarction or stroke and further leads to fatality.

METHOD

In this study, we have designed an anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL10) delivery system to effectively alleviate the inflammation of atherosclerosis plaque. The targeted delivery of IL10 to the atherosclerotic plaques was achieved by cRGD conjugated liposomes (IL10-cRGD-Lip).

RESULTS

The IL10-cRGD-Lip of size 179.4 ± 10.91 nm having PDI 0.14 ± 0.04 with a surface charge of +18.34 ± 1.36 mV was prepared. The in-vitro analysis clearly suggests that IL10-cRGD-Lip sustains the release of IL10 and could significantly reduce ROS and NO. The immuno-staining results revealed that IL-1β and TNF-α were down-regulated after the treatment with IL10-cRGD-Lip in Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.

CONCLUSION

the in-vitro results clearly suggest that anti-inflammatory cytokine IL10 could be used for the cure of inflammatory maladies including atherosclerosis.

Bolalipid-Doped Liposomes: Can Bolalipids Increase the Integrity of Liposomes Exposed to Gastrointestinal Fluids?

The use of archaeal lipids and their artificial analogues, also known as bolalipids, represents a promising approach for the stabilization of classical lipid vesicles for oral application. In a previous study, we investigated the mixing behavior of three single-chain alkyl-branched bolalipids PC-C32(1,32Cn)-PC (n = 3, 6, 9) with either saturated or unsaturated phosphatidyl-cholines. We proved, that the bolalipids PC-C32(1,32C6)-PC and PC-C32(1,32C9)-PC show miscibility with 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC). In the present work, we extended our vesicle system to natural lipid mixtures using phosphatidylcholine from soy beans, and we investigated the effect of incorporated bolalipids on the integrity of these mixed liposomes (bolasomes) in different gastrointestinal fluids using a dithionite assay and a calcein release assay in combination with particle size measurements. Finally, we also studied the retention of calcein within the bolasomes during freeze-drying. As a main result, we could show that in particular PC-C32(1,32C6)-PC is able to increase the stability of bolasomes in simulated gastric fluid-a prerequisite for the further use of liposomes as oral drug delivery vehicles.