Co-delivery of curcumin and miRNA-144-3p using heart-targeted extracellular vesicles enhances the therapeutic efficacy for myocardial infarction

J Control Release. 2021 Mar 10:331:62-73. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.01.018. Epub 2021 Jan 16.

Abstract

Curcumin exerts therapeutic effects in heart disease, but has limited bioavailability. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have gained attention as nanovehicles; however, the poor targeting ability of systemically administered EVs still remains a crucial issue. Herein, we generated heart-targeted EVs (CTP-EVs) by functionalizing EVs surface with cardiac targeting peptide (CTP) using genetic modification of EVs-secreting cells, and further loaded curcumin into CTP-EVs (CTP-EVs-Cur). Consequently, CTP-EVs were able to specifically deliver curcumin to the heart. In addition, curcumin-loaded CTP-EVs possess improved bioavailability, and are fully functional with a high cardioprotective efficiency. Moreover, we loaded miR-144-3p in CTP-EVs-Cur following validation of miR-144-3p as a major contributor in curcumin-mediated therapeutic effects. The simultaneous packing of curcumin and miR-144-3p in CTP-EVs not only retains the active heart-targeting ability but also achieves enhanced cardioprotective effects both in vitro and in vivo, indicating the possibility of combining and sustaining their therapeutic potential by simultaneously loading in CTP-EVs. Therefore, CTP-EVs could be a potential and effective strategy for the delivery of therapeutic molecules, thereby providing a promising nanomedicine for MI therapy.

Keywords: Curcumin; Heart-targeted extracellular vesicles; Myocardial infarction; miRNA-144-3p.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Curcumin*
  • Extracellular Vesicles*
  • Heart
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs*
  • Myocardial Infarction* / drug therapy

Substances

  • MIRN144 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • Curcumin