Mitochondria-targeted cyclosporin A delivery system to treat myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury of rats

Background Cyclosporin A (CsA) is a promising therapeutic drug for myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (MI/RI) because of its definite inhibition to the opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP). However, the application of cyclosporin A to treat MI/RI is limited due to its immunosuppressive effect to other normal organ and tissues. SS31 represents a novel mitochondria-targeted peptide which can guide drug to accumulate into mitochondria. In this paper, mitochondria-targeted nanoparticles (CsA@PLGA-PEG-SS31) were prepared to precisely deliver cyclosporin A into mitochondria of ischemic cardiomyocytes to treat MI/RI.