Peptide decorated micelles as a new approach for drug delivery for liver cirrhosis

Liver cirrhosis is a chronic disease which is responsible for 85% of liver transplants. It is also the fifth cause of death in adults aged between 50-70 years. Until now there is no treatment available to stop or slow the progression of this life-threatening disease. Statins are common drugs used to treat liver diseases but it is given in small concentrations because of their toxicity to the cells and tissues around the liver.

We aim to develop a new approach to enhance the statin delivery and specificity to receptors on the surface of Liver Sinusodial Endothelial Cells (LSEC). This will be performed by producing micelles for targeting different receptors on the surface of LSEC. The idea is to have designed micelles decorated either with one type or a combination of peptide ligands. These polymeric micelles will be loaded with sufficient concentrations of statin drugs which will maximize its efficacy and reduce toxicity.

Our preliminary results showed that the chosen peptide ligands that were synthesized and fluorescently labeled showed high recognition and internalization on LSEC within minutes.