Efficient Suppression of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Expansion in Rats through Systemic Administration of Statin-Loaded Nanomedicine

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening disease. However, no systemically injectable drug has been approved for AAA treatment due to low bioavailability. Polymeric micelles are nanomedicines that have the potential to improve therapeutic efficacy by selectively delivering drugs into disease sites, and research has mainly focused on cancer treatments. Here, we developed a statin-loaded polymeric micelle to treat AAAs in rat models. The micelle showed medicinal efficacy by preventing aortic aneurysm expansion in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the micelle-injected group showed decreased macrophage infiltration and decreased matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity in cases of AAA.

Keywords

• abdominal aortic aneurysm
• drug delivery
• polymeric micelle
• statin