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FRIDAY, May 11, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Self-assembling peptide amphiphile (PA) nanofibers, incorporating an 18 amino acid sequence that retains the cholesterol efflux actions of apolipoprotein-A1 (apoA1) and a liver X receptor (LXR) agonist can target and treat atherosclerosis, according to an experimental study presented at the American Heart Association’s Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine Scientific Sessions 2018, held from May 10 to 12 in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Neel A. Mansukhani, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues fed low density lipoprotein receptor knockout mice a high-fat diet for 14 weeks, and then administered bi-weekly injections of the nanofibers or control for eight weeks.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that the targeted PA nanofiber (ApoA PA) and Apo-A-LXR PA nanofibers effectively targeted atherosclerotic plaque in the aortic root. The optimum concentration of nanofiber and optimum dose were 2 mg\/mL and 6 mg\/kg, respectively. ApoA PA nanofiber localized to the aortic root for about two to three days; by seven to 10 days, ApoA PA nanofiber was cleared. One-day post-injection, concentrations of ApoA PA in the aortic root were five-fold higher than in the lung, liver, and kidney. Compared with phosphate-buffered saline treated controls, male and female mice treated with ApoA-LXR PA had 11 and 9 percent plaque reduction, respectively, after eight weeks of treatment.<\/p>\n
The results “demonstrate that a novel targeted nanofiber binds specifically to atherosclerotic lesions and reduces plaque burden after a short treatment duration,” Mansukhani said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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