Nanoparticle-mediated targeted delivery of antiretrovirals to the brain

Supriya D. Mahajan, Wing Cheung Law, Ravikumar Aalinkeel, Jessica Reynolds, Bindukumar B. Nair, Ken Tye Yong, Indrajit Roy, Paras N. Prasad, Stanley A. Schwartz

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nanotechnology offers a new platform for therapeutic delivery of antiretrovirals to the central nervous system (CNS) where human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) is sequestered in patients with HIV-1-associated neurological disorders (HAND). HAND is a spectrum of neurocognitive disorders that continue to persist in HIV-1-infected patients in spite of successful highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Nanoformulated antiretroviral drugs offer multifunctionality, that is, the ability to package multiple diagnostic and therapeutic agents within the same nanocomposite, along with the added provisions of site-directed delivery, delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and controlled release of therapeutics. We have stably incorporated the antiretroviral drug, Amprenavir, within a transferrin (Tf)-conjugated quantum dot (QD), and evaluated the transversing ability of this Tf-QD-Amprenavir nanoplex across an in vitro BBB model and analyzed its antiviral efficacy in HIV-1-infected monocytes. We describe methods for synthesis of the Tf-QD-Amprenavir nanoplex and approaches to evaluate both its BBB transversing capability and antiviral efficacy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)41-60
Number of pages20
JournalMethods in Enzymology
Volume509
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 May 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Amprenavir
  • Blood-brain barrier
  • HIV-1
  • Quantum rods
  • Transferrin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology

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