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Article detail · 2009

A Nanomedicine Transports a Peptide Caspase 3 Inhibitor across the Blood Brain Barrier and Provides Neuroprotection

Journal

Journal of Neuroscience

ISSN 0270-6474

YÖKSİS OpenAlex Open access · bronze SJR Q1 JCR Q1 Citations 187 Top 10% Percentile 98.2% FWCI 8.52
Year
2009
Type
article

Data source split

  • YÖKSİS YÖKSİS article record
  • YÖKSİS venue Journal of Neuroscience
  • Catalog match (ISSN) Journal of Neuroscience
  • OpenAlex OpenAlex enrichment (abstract, citations, topics)

Abstract

OpenAlex · English

Caspases play an important role as mediators of cell death in acute and chronic neurological disorders. Although peptide inhibitors of caspases provide neuroprotection, they have to be administered intracerebroventricularly because they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Herein, we present a nanocarrier system that can transfer chitosan nanospheres loaded with N-benzyloxycarbonyl-Asp(OMe)-Glu(OMe)-Val-Asp(OMe)-fluoromethyl ketone (Z-DEVD-FMK), a relatively specific caspase-3 inhibitor, across BBB. Caspase-3 was chosen as a pharmacological target because of its central role in cell death. Polyethylene glycol-coated nanospheres were conjugated to an anti-mouse transferrin receptor monoclonal antibody (TfRMAb) that selectively recognizes the TfR type 1 on the cerebral vasculature. We demonstrate with intravital microscopy that this nanomedicine is rapidly transported across the BBB without being measurably taken up by liver and spleen. Pre- or post-treatment (2 h) with intravenously injected Z-DEVD-FMK-loaded nanospheres dose dependently decreased the infarct volume, neurological deficit, and ischemia-induced caspase-3 activity in mice subjected to 2 h of MCA occlusion and 24 h of reperfusion, suggesting that they released an amount of peptide sufficient to inhibit caspase activity. Similarly, nanospheres inhibited physiological caspase-3 activity during development in the neonatal mouse cerebellum on postnatal day 17 after closure of the BBB. Neither nanospheres functionalized with TfRMAb but not loaded with Z-DEVD-FMK nor nanospheres lacking TfRMAb but loaded with Z-DEVD-FMK had any effect on either paradigm, suggesting that inhibition of caspase activity and subsequent neuroprotection were due to efficient penetration of the peptide into brain. Thus, chitosan nanospheres open new and exciting opportunities for brain delivery of biologically active peptides that are useful for the treatment of CNS disorders.

Topics

Citations

OpenAlex cited_by_count. Not a WoS or Scopus citation count; those sources have no separate column here.

187 citations

OpenAlex cited_by_count (cache / database)

Authors

  1. Hulya Karatas
  2. Yesim Aktas
  3. Yasemin GursoyOzdemir
  4. EBRU BODUR
  5. Müge Yemisci
  6. Secil Caban
  7. Atay Vural KOÇ ÜNİVERSİTESİ
  8. Onur Pinarbasli
  9. YILMAZ ÇAPAN
  10. Eduardo Fernandez-Megia
  11. Ramon NovoaCarballal
  12. Ricardo Riguera
  13. Karine Andrieux
  14. Patrick Couvreur
  15. TURGAY DALKARA İHSAN DOĞRAMACI BİLKENT ÜNİVERSİTESİ