PEG-Peptide Inhibition of Scavenger Receptor Uptake of Nanoparticles by the Liver

PEGylated polylysine peptides represent a new class of scavenger receptor inhibitors that may find utility at inhibiting DNA nanoparticle uptake by Kupffer cells in the liver. PEG-peptides inhibit scavenger receptors in the liver by a novel mechanism involving in situ formation of albumin nanoparticles. The present study developed a new in vivo assay used to explore the structure activity-relationships of PEG-peptides to find potent scavenger receptor inhibitors. Radio-iodinated PEG-peptides were dosed i.v. in mice and shown to saturate liver uptake in a dose-dependent fashion. The inhibition potency (IC50) was dependent on both the length of a polylysine repeat and PEG molecular weight. PEG(30kda)-Cys-Tyr-Lys(25) was confirmed to be a high molecular weight (33.5 kDa) scavenger receptor inhibitor with an IC50 of 18 mu M. Incorporation of multiple Leu residues improved potency, allowing a decrease in PEG MW and Lys repeat, resulting in PEG(5kda) Cys-Tyr-Lys-(Leu-Lys(4))(3)-Leu-Lys that inhibited scavenger receptors with an IC50 = 20 mu M. A further decrease in PEG MW to2 kDa increased potency further, resulting in a low molecular weight (4403 g/mol) PEG-peptide with an IC50 of 3 mu M. Optimized low molecular weight PEG-peptides also demonstrated potency when inhibiting the uptake of radio-iodinated DNA nanoparticles by the liver. This study demonstrates an approach to discover low molecular weight PEG-peptides that serve as potent scavenger receptor inhibitors to block nanoparticle uptake by the liver.