Carbon nanospheres mediated delivery of nuclear matrix protein SMAR1 to direct experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in mice

Abstract

Owing to the suppression of immune responses and associated side effects, steroid based treatments for inflammatory encephalitis disease can be detrimental. Here, we demonstrate a novel carbon nanosphere (CNP) based treatment regime for encephalomyelitis in mice by exploiting the functional property of the nuclear matrix binding protein SMAR1. A truncated part of SMAR1 ie, the DNA binding domain was conjugated with hydrothermally synthesized CNPs. When administered intravenously, the conjugate suppressed experimental animal encephalomyelitis in T cell specific conditional SMAR1 knockout mice (SMAR^−/−). Further, CNP-SMAR1 conjugate delayed the onset of the disease and reduced the demyelination significantly. There was a significant decrease in the production of IL-17 after re-stimulation with MOG. Altogether, our findings suggest a potential carbon nanomaterial based therapeutic intervention to combat Th17 mediated autoimmune diseases including experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Keywords:

• carbon nanospheres
• EAE
• IL-17
• SMAR1
• Th17

Acknowledgments

We thank Director, NCCS, Dr Shekhar Mande and Director, ARI, Dr Kishore M Paknikar for giving us the opportunity to work on this project. We thank Dr LS Limaye, Mrs Trupti Joshi for FACS facility, and Dr Rahul Bankar and Mr ML Shaikh for assistance with animal husbandry.

Author contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

SVC and PB are funded by CSIR, Government of India. BM is a recipient of ICMR fellowship. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.