As the prevalence of vascular calcification (VC), a strong
contributor
to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, continues to increase,
the need for pharmacologic therapies becomes urgent. Sodium thiosulfate
(STS) is a clinically approved drug for therapy against VC; however,
its efficacy is hampered by poor bioavailability and severe adverse
effects. Plant-derived extracellular vesicles have provided options
for VC treatment since they can be used as biomimetic drug carriers
with higher biosafety and targeting abilities than artificial carriers.
Inspired by natural grapefruit-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs),
we fabricated a biomimetic nanocarrier comprising EVs loaded with
STS and further modified with hydroxyapatite crystal binding peptide
(ESTP) for VC-targeted delivery of STS.
In vitro
,
the ESTP nanodrug exhibited excellent cellular uptake capacity by
calcified vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and subsequently inhibited
VSMCs calcification. In the VC mice model, the ESTP nanodrug showed
preferentially the highest accumulation in the calcified arteries
compared to other treatment groups. Mechanistically, the ESTP nanodrug
significantly prevented VC via driving M2 macrophage polarization,
reducing inflammation, and suppressing bone-vascular axis as demonstrated
by inhibiting osteogenic phenotype trans-differentiation of VSMCs
while enhancing bone quality. In addition, the ESTP nanodrug did not
induce hemolysis or cause any damage to other organs. These results
suggest that the ESTP nanodrug can prove to be a promising agent against
VC without the concern of systemic toxicity.