Porous antioxidant polymer microparticles as therapeutic systems for the airway inflammatory diseases

Inhaling steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is the most common treatment for airway inflammatory diseases such as asthma. However, frequent steroid administration causes adverse side effects. Therefore, the successful clinical translation of numerous steroidal drugs greatly needs pulmonary drug delivery systems which are formulated from biocompatible and non-immunogenic polymers. We have recently developed a new family of biodegradable polymer, vanillyl alcohol-containing copolyoxalate (PVAX) which is able to scavenge hydrogen peroxide and exert potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. In this work, we report the therapeutic potential of porous PVAX microparticles which encapsulate dexamethasone (DEX) as a therapeutic system for airway inflammatory diseases. PVAX microparticles themselves reduced oxidative stress and suppressed the expression of pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-alpha and inducible nitric oxide synthase in the lung of ovalbumin-challenged asthmatic mice. However, DEX-loaded porous PVAX microparticles showed significantly enhanced therapeutic effects than PVAX microparticles, suggesting the synergistic effects of PVAX with DEX. In addition, PVAX microparticles showed no inflammatory responses to lung tissues. Given their excellent biocompatibility and intrinsic antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, PVAX microparticles hold tremendous potential as therapeutic systems for the treatment of airway inflammatory diseases such as asthma.