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

Yao Wang; Mengying Hou; Shanzhou Duan; Ziyin Zhao; Xuejie Wu; Yongbing Chen; Lichen Yin

doi:10.1016/j.bioactmat.2022.01.026

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

Bioact Mater. 2022 Feb 1:17:320-333. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2022.01.026. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Yao Wang^{1

2

3}, Mengying Hou², Shanzhou Duan¹, Ziyin Zhao², Xuejie Wu¹, Yongbing Chen¹, Lichen Yin²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215002, China.
² Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.
³ Yancheng First Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Yancheng, 224005, China.

Abstract

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 orchestrating 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 macrophage 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.

Keywords: Anti-inflammation; Microenvironment remodeling; Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury; Reduction-responsive branched poly(β-amino ester); siRNA/miRNA delivery.