A novel small Odorranalectin-bearing cubosomes: Preparation, brain delivery and pharmacodynamic study on amyloid-β25–35-treated rats following intranasal administration

Abstract Because of the immunogenicity and toxicity in vivo of large molecules such as lectins, the application of these molecules is remarkably restricted in drug delivery systems. In this study, to improve the brain drug delivery and reduce the immunogenicity of traditional lectin modified delivery system, Odorranalectin (OL, 1700 Da), a novel non-immunogenic small peptide, was selected to establish an OL-modified cubosomes (Cubs) system. The streptavidin (SA)-conjugated Cubs were prepared by incorporating maleimide–PEG–oleate and taking advantage of its thiol group binding reactivity to conjugate with 2-iminothiolane thiolated SA; mono-biotinylated OL was then coupled with the SA-modified Cubs. The OL-decorated Cubs (OL-Cubs) devised via a non-covalent SA-biotin “bridge” made it easy to conjugate OL and determine the number of ligands on the surface of the Cubs using sensitive chemiluminescent detection. Retention of the bio-recognitive activity of OL after covalent coupling was verified by hemagglutination testing. Nose-to-brain delivery characteristic of OL-Cubs was investigated by in vivo fluorescent biodistribution using coumarin-6 as a marker. The relative uptake of coumarin carried by OL-Cubs was 1.66- to 3.46-fold in brain tissues compared to that incorporated in the Cubs. Besides, Gly14-Humanin (S14G-HN) as a model peptide drug was loaded into cubosomes and evaluated for its pharmacodynamics on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) rats following intranasal administration by Morris water maze test and acetylcholinesterase activity determination. The results suggested that OL functionalization enhanced the therapeutic effects of S14G-HN-loaded cubosomes on AD. Thus, OL-Cubs might offer a novel effective and noninvasive system for brain drug delivery, especially for peptides and proteins.