Atherosclerosis, driven by chronic inflammation in the artery walls, underlies several severe cardiovascular diseases. However, currently available anti-inflammatory-based strategies for atherosclerosis treatment suffer from compromised therapeutic efficacy and undesirable therapeutic outcome. Herein, a distinct tetrapod needle-like PdH nanozyme was designed and engineered for efficient atherosclerosis treatment by the combinatorial reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, hydrogen anti-inflammation, and autophagy activation. After loading into macrophages and targeted delivery to arterial plaques, these multifunctional nanozymes efficiently decreased the ROS levels and significantly suppressed the inflammation-related pathological process, exerting the distinct antioxidation and anti-inflammatory performance for alleviating atherosclerosis development. Especially and importantly, the specific spiky morphology of the PdH nanoenzyme further triggered a strong autophagy response in macrophages, synergistically maintaining the cellular homeostasis and alleviating atherosclerosis development. Both in vitro and in vivo results confirmed the synergy among the antioxidation, anti-inflammatory, and autophagy activation, suggesting that the combinatorial engineering of nanomedicines with intrinsic multiple therapeutic functions and topology-induced biological effects is highly preferable and effective for achieving the high therapeutic performance and desirable therapeutic outcome on atherosclerosis management and therapy.
Keywords: PdH; ROS scavenge; atherosclerosis; autophagy; gas therapy; nanozyme; tetrapod.