Targeted drug delivery in atherosclerosis

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) induced by atherosclerosis is the main cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. The fundamental pathogenesis associates with an imbalanced lipid metabolism as well as a non-adaptive immune response triggering a chronic inflammation of the arterial wall. Dexamethasone (Dex) is a popular anti-inflammatory worldwide, if we can specifically deliver it to the inflammatory region, the symptoms should be relieved and have few side effects. Therefore, the objective of this project is to put the anti-inflammatory drug (Dex) into carrier (Poly D, L-lactic-co-glycolic acid polymer) to specially target foam cells, then prevent the subsequent diseases or complications induced by atherosclerosis, therefore, the drug dose and side effects could be lowed. During this process, characterize the particles via Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to find the appropriate weight ratio of polymer and drug.