Raphael Duivenvoorden1,2,
Jun Tang1, David Izquierdo-Garcia3, David P. Cormode1,
Eric S. G. Stroes2, Edward A. Fisher4, Zahi A. Fayad1,3,
Willem J. M. Mulder1
1Translational
& Molecular Imaging Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York,
NY, USA; 2Vascular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam,
NH, Netherlands; 3Radiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New
York, NY, USA; 4Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology,
New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
We hypothesized that targeted statin delivery to atherosclerotic plaque with a reconstituted high density lipoprotein (rHDL) nanoparticle can inhibit plaque inflammation and development more potently than oral statin therapy or rHDL infusion. We divided 48 apoE-KO mice in 3 equal groups that were either treated with oral simvastatin, rHDL infusion or our rHDL like nanoparticle loaded with simvastatin for 12 weeks. We performed MRI and histology measurements to quantify aortic atherosclerosis. We found that targeted statin delivery to atherosclerotic plaque with rHDL like nanoparticles showed considerably more efficacy in the treatment of atherosclerosis than oral statin therapy or rHDL infusion.