Targeted-lung delivery of bardoxolone methyl using PECAM-1 antibody-conjugated nanostructure lipid carriers for the treatment of lung inflammation

The effective treatment of acute lung injury (ALI) remains a significant challenge. Patients with ALI demonstrate an abundance of proinflammatory mediators in both bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and circulating plasma. Bardoxolone methyl (BM) is a semi-synthetic triterpenoid derived from oleanolic acid, a natural product known for its ability to inhibit proinflammatory signaling. GSDMD is a signaling protein involved in pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death. It has been reported that its upstream proteins play a role in the pathogenesis of ALI. However, there is currently no research examining whether the effect of BM on the occurrence and development of ALI is associated with changes in GSDMD protein. In this study, we prepared nanostructured lipid carriers loaded with BM and conjugated with anti-PECAM-1 antibody (PECAM@BM NLCs). PECAM@BM NLCs were designed to specifically bind to pulmonary vascular endothelial cells that highly express the PECAM-1 receptors. We also aimed to investigate the protective effects of PECAM@BM NLCs on ALI and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. The results demonstrated that PECAM@BM NLCs accumulated in the lung tissues and significantly alleviated the inflammatory injury of ALI. This was evidenced by the changes in the lung wet/dry ratio, the total protein concentration, proinflammatory cytokines in BALF, and the histopathological progress. Additionally, we elucidated that PECAM@BM NLCs had the ability to inhibit the assembly of NLRP3 inflammasome and pro-caspase-1 complex, thereby suppressing the induction of pyroptosis. This mechanism resulted in the inhibition of N-terminal GSDMD expression and effectively prevented the progression of ALI.