Biomimetic Nanoparticle-Mediated Target Delivery of Hypoxia-Responsive Plasmid of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 to Reverse Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) is characterized by pulmonary vascular sustained constriction and progressive remodeling, which are initiated by hypoxia then with hypoxia-induced additive factors including pulmonary vascular endothelium injury, intrapulmonary angiotension system imbalance, and inflammation. Now HPH is still an intractable disease lacking effective treatments. Gene therapy has a massive potential for HPH but is hindered by a lack of efficient targeted delivery and hypoxia-responsive regulation systems for transgenes. Herein, we constructed the hypoxia-responsive plasmid of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) with endothelial-specific promoter Tie2 and a hypoxia response element and next prepared its biomimetic nanoparticle delivery system, named ACE2-CS-PRT@PM, by encapsulating the plasmid of ACE2 with protamine and chondroitin sulfate as the core then coated it with a platelet membrane as a shell for targeting the injured pulmonary vascular endothelium. ACE2-CS-PRT@PM has a 194.3 nm diameter with a platelet membrane-coating core–shell structure and a negatively charged surface, and it exhibits higher delivery efficiency targeting to pulmonary vascular endothelium and hypoxia-responsive overexpression of ACE2 in endothelial cells in a hypoxia environment. In vitro, ACE2-CS-PRT@PM significantly inhibited the hypoxia-induced proliferation of pulmonary smooth muscle cells. In vivo, ACE2-CS-PRT@PM potently ameliorated the hemodynamic dysfunction and morphological abnormality and largely reversed HPH via inhibiting the hypoxic proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells, reducing pulmonary vascular remodeling, restoring balance to the intrapulmonary angiotension system, and improving the inflammatory microenvironment without any detectable toxicity. Therefore, ACE2-CS-PRT@PM is promising for the targeted gene therapy of HPH.