Peptide Amphiphile Nanostructures for Targeting of Atherosclerotic Plaque and Drug Delivery

Abstract

Coassembled 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 low density lipoprotein receptor knockout (LDLR KO) mice with or without the encapsulated molecule, while nanofibers displaying a scrambled, nontargeting 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.