Systemic thrombolytic drug administration has always gained an unideal therapeutic effect due to the rapid neutralization by its antidotes. It is significant to seek an approach for targeted thrombolytic drug delivery to the thrombus. Here a biocompatible, thrombus-targeted, and low-cost platelet-mimic nanovector was fabricated to accomplish a sustained urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) release at the thrombus site. The prepared system presented a sustained model drug release behavior for 30 h and burst release behavior under near-infrared laser irradiation with hyperthermia in vitro. We demonstrate that the fabricated nanovectors can arrive and aggregate at the pulmonary thrombus, followed by a sustained uPA release in the murine pulmonary embolism model. Therefore, according to the results, the formulated nanovector presented a hopeful application for targeted thrombolytic therapy clinically.
Keywords: drug delivery; hyperthermal thrombolysis; platelet mimic; thrombolytic therapy; thrombus-targeted.