Polydopamine nanoparticle-mediated mild photothermal therapy for inhibiting atherosclerotic plaque progression by regulating lipid metabolism of foam cells

Shuangshuang Tu; Wenzhi Ren; Jinru Han; Haijing Cui; Ting Dai; Haoxuan Lu; Yanqing Xie; Wenming He; Aiguo Wu

doi:10.1093/rb/rbad031

Polydopamine nanoparticle-mediated mild photothermal therapy for inhibiting atherosclerotic plaque progression by regulating lipid metabolism of foam cells

Regen Biomater. 2023 Mar 25:10:rbad031. doi: 10.1093/rb/rbad031. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shuangshuang Tu^{1

2}, Wenzhi Ren^{2

3}, Jinru Han^{2

4}, Haijing Cui², Ting Dai¹, Haoxuan Lu¹, Yanqing Xie¹, Wenming He¹, Aiguo Wu^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province 315020, China.
² Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices & Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering CAS, Ningbo 315201, China.
³ Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.

Abstract

Since apoptosis of foam, cells can induce plaque instability, reducing intracellular lipid content while protecting foam cells from apoptosis is beneficial for the safe and efficient therapy of atherosclerosis. In this study, osteopontin-coupled polydopamine (PDA-OPN) nanoparticles were synthesized and applied to target mild photothermal therapy (PTT) of atherosclerosis. The results from laser confocal microscopy indicate that PDA-OPN nanoparticles can be specially recognized and absorbed by foam cells. Under near-infrared laser irradiation, the mild photothermal generated by PDA-OPN decreases intracellular lipid accumulation but does not induce cell apoptosis. In vivo treatments demonstrate that mild PTT can substantially reduce plaque area and improve plaque stability by upregulating the expression of plaque fibrosis in ApoE^-/- mice. Our findings reinforce that the PDA-OPN nanoparticle-mediated mild PTT can inhibit atherosclerotic progression, which provides new insights for developing safe and effective treatment methods for atherosclerosis.

Keywords: atherosclerosis; lipid metabolism; photothermal therapy; polydopamine nanoparticles.