Systemic anti-inflammatory therapy aided by double-headed nanoparticles in a canine model of acute intraocular inflammation. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Novel approaches circumventing blood-ocular barriers in systemic drug delivery are lacking. We hypothesize receptor-mediated delivery of curcumin (CUR) across intestinal and ocular barriers leads to decreased inflammation in a model of lens-induced uveitis. CUR was encapsulated in double-headed polyester nanoparticles using gambogic acid (GA)-coupled polylactide-co-glycolide (PLGA). Orally administered PLGA-GA2-CUR led to notable aqueous humor CUR levels and was dosed (10 mg/kg twice daily) to adult male beagles (n = 8 eyes) with induced ocular inflammation. Eyes were evaluated using a semiquantitative preclinical ocular toxicology scoring (SPOTS) and compared to commercial anti-inflammatory treatment (oral carprofen 2.2 mg/kg twice daily) (n = 8) and untreated controls (n = 8). PLGA-GA2-CUR offered improved protection compared with untreated controls and similar protection compared with carprofen, with reduced aqueous flare, miosis, and chemosis in the acute phase (<4 hours). This study highlights the potential of PLGA-GA2 nanoparticles for systemic drug delivery across ocular barriers.

published proceedings

  • Sci Adv

altmetric score

  • 69.03

author list (cited authors)

  • Ganugula, R., Arora, M., Lepiz, M. A., Niu, Y., Mallick, B. K., Pflugfelder, S. C., Scott, E. M., & Kumar, M.

citation count

  • 9

complete list of authors

  • Ganugula, R||Arora, M||Lepiz, MA||Niu, Y||Mallick, BK||Pflugfelder, SC||Scott, EM||Kumar, MNV Ravi

publication date

  • August 2020