Poly Lactic-co-glycolic acid nanoparticles encapsulation enhance the effectiveness of curcumin for rescuing trafficking-defective gp91phox in chronic granulomatous disease leukocytes.

Abstract

Abstract Mutations in leukocyte NADPH oxidase genes lead to defective reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cause chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) in humans. Previously we have shown that the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA) pump inhibitor, thapsigargin, rescues the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of the mutant protein in a CGD patient with a gp91phox (H338Y) mutation. Curcumin, a natural constituent of Curcuma longa, is also a SERCA pump inhibitor. However, the clinical effectiveness of curcumin is not satisfactory due to its poor in vivo bioavailability and potential cytotoxicity. In this study, we investigated the effects of organelle-targeting nanoparticles on the delivery of curcumin to leukocytes for the treatment of CGD. First, we investigated the cytotoxicity of curcumin with poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles encapsulation. Next, we investigated the therapeutic potential of PLGA encapsulated curcumin in mice expressing gp91phox (H338Y) mutant protein. Our results showed that (1) ER-targeting peptide decoration enhanced the localization of PLGA encapsulated curcumin in the ER region; (2) PLGA encapsulated curcumin induced ER calcium release, but the following extracellular calcium entry and ER stress-associated cell death was inhibited; (3) The in vivo test showed that PLGA encapsulated curcumin with ER-targeting peptide decoration enhanced leukocytes gp91phox (H338Y) mutant protein processing and the ROS production. This study showed the therapeutic potential of PLGA encapsulated curcumin for diseases with protein-trafficking defective mutations. Efficient organelle-targeting may promote the efficiency of nanoparticle-based curcumin delivery system.