Posted by Atherosclerosis (AS), a pathological cause of cardiovascular disease, results from endothelial injury, local progressive inflammation, and excessive lipid accumulation. AS plaques rich in foam cells are prone to rupture and form thrombus, which can cause life-threatening complications. Therefore, the assessment of atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability and early intervention are crucial in reducing the mortality rates associated with cardiovascular disease. In this work, A fluorescent probe FC-TPA was synthesized, which switches the fluorescence state between protonated and non-protonated, reducing background fluorescence and enhancing imaging signal-to-noise ratio. On this basis, FC-TPA is loaded into cyclodextrin (CD) modified with phosphatidylserine targeting peptide (PTP) and coated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to construct the intelligent responsive diagnostic nanoplatform (HA@PCFT). HA@PCFT effectively targets atherosclerotic plaques, utilizing dual targeting mechanisms. HA binds strongly to CD44, while PTP binds to phosphatidylserine, enabling nanoparticle aggregation at the lesion site. ROS acts as a smart release switch for probes. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations confirm impressive lipid-specific fluorescence imaging capabilities of HA@PCFT nanoparticles (NPs). The detection of lipid load in atherosclerotic plaque by fluorescence imaging will aid in assessing the vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaque.
Zhigui He, Qiao Chen, Xinmei Duan, Yuan Zhong, Li Zhu, Nianlian Mou, Xu Yang, Yu Cao, Zhiqiang Han, Houhua He, Shuai Wu, Guixue Wang, Xian Qin, Kai Qu, Kun Zhang, Jie Liu, Wei Wu (2024) Reactive oxygen species-responsive nano-platform with dual-targeting and fluorescent lipid-specific imaging capabilities for the management of atherosclerotic plaques. Acta Biomaterialia 181, 375-390.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2024.05.011.