Porous Silicon Nanoparticles Targeted to the Extracellular Matrix for Therapeutic Protein Delivery in Traumatic Brain Injury.

ABSTRACT: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability and death among children and young adults in the United States, yet there are currently no treatments that improve the long-term brain health of patients. One promising therapeutic for TBI is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that promotes neurogenesis and neuron survival. However, outstanding challenges to the systemic delivery of BDNF are its instability in blood, poor transport into the brain, and short half-life in circulation and brain tissue. Here, BDNF is encapsulated into an engineered, biodegradable porous silicon nanoparticle (pSiNP) in order to deliver bioactive BDNF to injured brain tissue after TBI. The pSiNP carrier is modified with the targeting ligand CAQK, a peptide that binds to extracellular ma

SUBMITTER: Waggoner LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9492643 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature