Numerous diseases ranging from neurodegenerative till some types of cancer are associated with overproduction of reactive oxygen species. Injection of antioxidants could decrease inflammation. Antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase, are the most effective antioxidants in nature and could be used to slow oxidative stress, especially in acute pathologies such as stroke or brain and spinal cord injuries. Unfortunately, injection of native enzymes is not effective due to their rapid elimination and instability in blood against proteases. We developed drug delivery system – “nanozymes” for SOD based on block-ionomer complexes with PEGylated poly(amino acids).
Therapeutic activity of different formulations of SOD was investigated using rats spinal cord injury model. Nanozymes have better PK profile and therapeutic efficiency: rats that were injected with nanozymes, showed higher scores in BBB-test and lower volume of damage on MRI images.
This work was supported by grant under the program “UMNIK” and by grant from the Ministry of Education and Science 11G34.31.0004 from 30.11.2010.