Inhalable songorine-integrated lipid nanomedicine for targeted ARDS therapy via repairing endothelial barrier and inactivating NLRP3 inflammasome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening disease. In the clinical management of ARDS, current treatments such as glucocorticoids and protease inhibitors encounter significant challenges due to their high toxicity, limited administration routes, or poor targeting. These limitations highlight the urgent need for innovative therapeutic strategies. Songorine (Son), a compound derived from the herb <i>Aconitum carmichaelii</i> Debeaux, possesses good antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, exhibiting great potential for treating ARDS. However, its clinical application is partially constrained by low aqueous solubility and uncertain efficacy for ARDS. In this study, we developed a lung-targeted lipid nanomedicine by encapsulating Son in dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) liposomes (Son@liposome, Son-lipo). In a lipopolysaccharide-induced ARDS mouse model, we demonstrated that Son-lipo effectively targeted inflamed lung tissues with commendable biocompatibility. Further, Son-lipo significantly alleviated multiple ARDS phenotypes such as endothelial barrier damage, lung edema, pulmonary dysfunction, and alveolar lesion, which involved uncontrolled inflammation, oxidative stress, and cell apoptosis. RNA sequencing and Western blotting analyses revealed that Son-lipo inhibited the activation of the TLR4/NF-<i>κ</i>B/NLRP3 pathway responsible for ARDS. In conclusion, our study successfully developed an inhalable lipid-nanomedicine (Son-lipo) as a novel therapeutic strategy for ARDS. It elucidates the formulation's ability to mitigate ARDS by repairing the endothelial barrier and reversing the inflammatory microenvironment, thereby providing a promising candidate drug for improving clinical management of ARDS.