Targeted Delivery of FLT-Morpholino Using Cyclic RGD Peptide.

Purpose: We previously showed that intravitreal injection of the sFLT morpholino-oligomer (FLT-MO) suppresses laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in mice by decreasing the membrane bound form of Flt-1 while increasing the soluble form of Flt-1 via alternative splicing shift. In this study, we examined whether cyclic RGD peptide (cRGD) can promote morpholino-oligomer accumulation in CNV following tail vein injection, and whether systemic cRGD conjugated FLT-MO (cRGD-FLT-MO) suppresses CNV growth.

Methods: cRGD conjugated fluorescent morpholino-oligomer (cRGD-F-MO) was injected via tail vein into mice with previous retinal laser photocoagulation and examined for cRGD-F-MO accumulation in CNV. To examine whether cRGD-FLT-MO suppresses CNV growth, mice were tail-vein injected with cRGD-FLT-MO, cRGD conjugated standard morpholino-oligomer (cRGD-STD-MO), or Dulbecco's Phosphate-Buffered Saline (DPBS) 1 and 4 days postlaser photocoagulation. Seven days postlaser photocoagulation, eyes were harvested and laser CNV was stained with isolectin GS-IB4, allowing quantification of CNV size by confocal microscopy.

Results: cRGD-F-MO accumulation in CNV commenced immediately after tail vein injection and could be observed even 1 day after injection. cRGD-FLT-MO tail vein injection significantly suppressed CNV size (2.7 × 10 ± 0.3 × 10 μm, < 0.05 by Student's -test) compared with controls (DPBS: 5.1 × 10 ± 0.6 × 10 μm and cRGD-STD-MO: 5.5 × 10 ± 0.8 × 10 μm).

Conclusions: cRGD peptide facilitates morpholino-oligomer accumulation in CNV following systemic delivery. cRGD-FLT-MO suppressed CNV growth after tail-vein injection, demonstrating the potential utility of cRGD peptide for morpholino-oligomer delivery to CNV.

Translational Relevance: Current therapy for neovascular age-related macular degeneration involves intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drugs. Our results indicate that CNV can be treated systemically, thus eliminating risks and hazards associated with intravitreal injection.