Macrophage-targeting gene silencing orchestrates myocardial microenvironment remodeling toward the anti-inflammatory treatment of ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury

Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury represents a major cause of myocardial dysfunction after infarction and thrombolytic therapy, and it is closely related to the free radical explosion and overwhelming inflammatory responses. Herein, macrophage-targeting nanocomplexes (NCs) are developed to mediate efficient co-delivery of siRNA against MOF (siMOF) and microRNA-21 (miR21) into myocardial macrophages, cooperatively orches-trating the myocardial microenvironment against IR injury. Bioreducible, branched poly(β-amino ester) (BPAE-SS) is designed to co-condense siMOF and miR21 into NCs in a multivalency-reinforced approach, and they are surface-decorated with carboxylated mannan (Man-COOH) to shield the positive surface charges and enhance the serum stability. The final MBSsm NCs are efficiently internalized by myocardial macrophages after systemic administration, wherein BPAE-SS is degraded into small segments by intracellular glutathione to promote the siMOF/miR21 release, finally provoking efficient gene silencing. Thus, cardiomyocyte protection and macro-phage modulation are realized via the combined effects of ROS scavenging, inflammation inhibition, and autophagy attenuation, which ameliorates the myocardial microenvironment and restores the cardiac function via positive cellular crosstalk. This study renders promising solutions to address the multiple systemic barriers against in vivo nucleic acid delivery, and it also offers new options for IR injury by manipulating multiple reciprocal bio-reactions.

MicroRNA-208a silencing against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury mediated by reversibly camouflaged biomimetic nanocomplexes

MicroRNA-208a(miR-208a)plays critical roles in the severe fibrosis and heart failure post myocardial ischemia/reperfusion(IR)injury.MiR-208a inhibitor(mI)with complementary RNA sequence can silence the expression of miR-208a,while it is challenging to achieve efficient and myocardium-targeted delivery.Herein,biomimetic nanocomplexes(NCs)reversibly coated with red blood cell membrane(RM)were developed for the myocardial delivery of mI.To construct the NCs,membrane-penetrating helical polypeptide(PG)was first adopted to condense mI and form the cationic inner core,which subsequently adsorbed catalase(CAT)via electrostatic interaction followed by surface coating with RM.The membrane-coated NCs enabled prolonged blood circulation after systemic administration,and could accumulate in the injured myocardium via passive targeting.In the oxidative microenvironment of injured myocardium,CAT decomposed H_(2)O_(2)to produce O_(2)bubbles,which drove the shedding of the outer RM to expose the positively charged inner core,thus facilitated effective internalization by cardiac cells.Based on the combined contribution of mI-mediated miR-208a silencing and CAT-mediated alleviation of oxidative stress,NCs effectively ameliorated the myocardial microenvironment,hence reducing the infarct size as well as fibrosis and promoting recovery of cardiac functions.This study provides an effective strategy for the cytosolic delivery of nucleic acid cargoes in the myocardium,and it renders an enlightened approach to resolve the blood circulation/cell internalization dilemma of cell membrane-coated delivery systems.