| Abstract: | Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is the obstruction of blood flow in the lower body parts, causing sores/ulcers and pain when walking. According to recent statistics, more than 200 million people suffer from PAD worldwide. Current treatments include surgical revascularization, anticoagulant therapy and, in extreme cases, amputation. All these methods have several limitations, and this brings an urgency to develop therapeutics that will form another route for the blood to flow through the hindlimb. We aim to develop and formulate nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with cDNA plasmids of the Epo receptor (EpoR) to enhance angiogenesis and/or restore vessel functions. Although nanodrug formulation by itself had a good therapeutic efficacy, in order to improve the bioavailability of the drug at the injured site we bio-conjugated the anti-ICAM-1 (Intercellular Adhesion Molecule) antibody on the surface of nanoparticles. During the inflammation, the endothelial cells are known to express ICAM-1 receptors on their surface. This targeting strategy would help in specific availability of the nanodrug at the injured site leading to increased angiogenesis process. The in vitro studies gave promising results in restoring vessels at the ischemic site and gave us green light for further studies in animal models. |