Hydrogen Peroxide-Responsive Nanoparticle Reduces Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

During myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is produced. In particular, overproduction of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is considered to be a main cause of I/R-mediated tissue damage. We generated novel H₂O₂-responsive antioxidant polymer nanoparticles (PVAX and HPOX) that are able to target the site of ROS overproduction and attenuate the oxidative stress-associated diseases. In this study, nanoparticles were examined for their therapeutic effect on myocardial I/R injury.

The therapeutic effect of nanoparticles during cardiac I/R was evaluated in mice. A single dose of PVAX (3 mg/kg) showed a significant improvement in both cardiac output and fraction shortening compared with poly(lactic-coglycolic acid) (PLGA) particle, a non-H₂O₂-activatable nanoparticle. PVAX also significantly reduced the myocardial infarction/area compared with PLGA (48.7±4.2 vs 14.5±2.1). In addition, PVAX effectively reduced caspase-3 activation and TUNEL-positive cells compared with PLGA. Furthermore, PVAX significantly decreased TNF-α and MCP-1 mRNA levels. To explore the antioxidant effect of PVAX by scavenging ROS, dihydroethidium staining was used as an indicator of ROS generation. PVAX effectively suppressed the generation of ROS caused by I/R, whereas a number of dihydroethidium-positive cells were observed in a group with PLGA I/R. In addition, PVAX significantly reduced the level of NADPH oxidase (NOX) 2 and 4 expression, which favors the reduction in ROS generation after I/R.

Taken together, these results suggest that H₂O₂-responsive antioxidant PVAX has tremendous potential as a therapeutic agent for myocardial I/R injury.