Platelet‐Mimicking Therapeutic System for Noninvasive Mitigation of the Progression of Atherosclerotic Plaques

Abstract

Atherosclerotic plaque is the primary cause of cardiovascular disorders and remains a therapeutic hurdle for the early intervention of atherosclerosis. Traditional clinical strategies are often limited by surgery‐related complications or unsatisfactory effects of long‐term drug administration. Inspired by the plaque‐binding ability of platelets, a biomimic photodynamic therapeutic system is designed to mitigate the progression of atherosclerotic plaques. This system is composed of photosensitizer‐loaded upconversion nanoparticle cores entrapped in the platelet membrane. The platelet membrane coating facilitates specific targeting of the therapeutic system to macrophage‐derived foam cells, the hallmark, and main component of early stage atherosclerotic plaques, which is firmly confirmed by in vivo fluorescent and single‐photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) radionuclide imaging. Importantly, in vivo phototherapy guided by SPECT/CT imaging alleviates plaque progression. Further immunofluorescence analysis reveals foam cell apoptosis and ameliorated inflammation. This biomimic system, which combines plaque‐binding with radionuclide imaging guidance, is a novel, noninvasive, and potent strategy to mitigate the progression of atherosclerotic plaque.

Recent Advances of Cell Membrane Coated Nanoparticles in Treating Cardiovascular Disorders

“…CMCNPs can also serve as novel diagnostic tools. Ma et al prepared a platelet membrane coated nanoconstruct (PM-PAAO-UCNPs), which consists of upconversion nanoparticles and Ce6 photosensitizer for accurate localization and non-invasive photodynamic therapy of atherosclerosis [ 99 ]. In their study, the platelet membrane coating strategy effectively increased the binding affinity of nanoparticles to foam cells, the features of which include unregulated lipid metabolism, and play a central role throughout the disease stages.…”

Biomimetic phototherapy in cancer treatment: from synthesis to application

“…Notably, the surface modification of the cell membrane can endow NPs with the ability to actively target diseased tissues. So far, enormous efforts have been devoted to applying membrane materials for delivering phototherapy agents for enhanced anti-tumor treatment, such as RBC membrane (Pei et al, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2018a , b ; Shi et al, 2020 ), cancer cell membrane (Li et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2020a , b ), PLTM (Ma et al, 2021 ), macrophage membrane (Liu et al, 2021 ), phagocyte membrane (Hu et al, 2020 ), MDSC membrane (Zhang et al, 2020a , b ), and fused membranes (Xu et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Inspired by the ability of PLTM, researchers have paid attention to PLTM-based phototherapy (Wei et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2018 ; Chen et al, 2019a , b ; Ma et al, 2021 ). For example, Ma et al ( 2021 ) designed a PLT-mimic system in which the bleeding PLTM encapsulated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and PS Ce6.…”

“…Inspired by the ability of PLTM, researchers have paid attention to PLTM-based phototherapy (Wei et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2018 ; Chen et al, 2019a , b ; Ma et al, 2021 ). For example, Ma et al ( 2021 ) designed a PLT-mimic system in which the bleeding PLTM encapsulated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and PS Ce6. As illustrated in Figure 6 , the PLT system was prepared by adding UCNPs and Ce6 into polyacrylic acid-n-octylamine (PAAO) micelle and then coating it with PLTM.…”

“… Design and characterization of PLTM‐PAAO‐UCNPs. Copyright 2021, John Wiley and Sons (Ma et al, 2021 ). …”