Drug Delivery (Jan 2018)

Targeted delivery of hyaluronic acid-coated solid lipid nanoparticles for rheumatoid arthritis therapy

  • Meiling Zhou,
  • Jierong Hou,
  • Zhirong Zhong,
  • Na Hao,
  • Yan Lin,
  • Chunhong Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2018.1447050
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 716 – 722

Abstract

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease. Long-term, high-dose glucocorticoid therapy can be used to treat the disease, but the fact that the drug distributes systemically can give rise to severe adverse effects. Here we develop a targeted system for treating RA in which the glucocorticoid prednisolone (PD) is encapsulated within solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) coated with hyaluronic acid (HA), giving rise to HA-SLNs/PD. HA binds to hyaluronic receptor CD44, which is over-expressed on the surface of synovial lymphocytes, macrophages and fibroblasts in inflamed joints in RA. As predicted, HA-SLNs/PD particles accumulated in affected joint tissue after intravenous injection into mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), and HA-SLNs/PD persisted longer in circulation and preserved bone and cartilage better than free drug or drug encapsulated in SLNs without HA. HA-SLNs/PD reduced joint swelling, bone erosion and levels of inflammatory cytokines in serum. These results suggest that encapsulating glucocorticoids such as PD in HA-coated SLNs may render them safe and effective for treating inflammatory disorders.

Keywords