Abstract 365: Targeted Delivery of IGF-1 Following Acute Myocardial Infarction

During acute myocardial infarction (MI) there is excessive necrosis of myocardial cells, leading to the release of large amounts of DNA, representing a potential target for drug delivery. Hoechst, a commonly used molecule for staining nuclei, binds to the minor groove of double-stranded DNA and can be functionalized to contain reactive groups such as free amines, sulfhydryls, and biotin moieties. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a small molecule with a short half-life is protective immediately following MI, though there is potential for long-term toxicity and off-target effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that conjugating IGF-1 to Hoechst would increase targeting of IGF-1 to the injured myocardium. Hoechst-IGF1 (H-IGF1) was synthesized by binding Hoechst-biotin to biotinylated IGF-1 via a fluorescent streptavidin linker. Intact cells did not show nuclear staining with H-IGF1, while permeabilized cells had a significant increase in blue fluorescent Hoechst staining, indicating H-IGF1 was cell impermeable but could still bind DNA. Activity of H-IGF1 was demonstrated by Akt phosphorylation in cultured cardiac progenitor cells and was similar to native IGF-1. To determine in-vivo targeting of H-IGF1 to MI, mice underwent 30 minutes of coronary artery ligation followed by reperfusion (I/R). Six hours following MI, mice were injected intravenously with 70ng of H-IGF1, S-IGF1 (streptavidin bound IGF-1 only) or PBS followed by in vivo imaging at 30 and 120 minutes post-injection. At 30 minutes post-injection, we found 3.2% (2.2 of 70ng) of the injected dose of H-IGF1 in infarcted hearts compared with 1.8% (1.3 of 70ng) of S-IGF1 (n=5-7; p<0.05). To confirm that targeting of H-IGF1 was dependent on binding DNA, H-IGF1 pre-bound to double-stranded DNA was injected intravenously after I/R. This led to a significant (p<0.05) decrease in targeted IGF-1 levels. IGF-1 levels determined by ELISA 2 hours post-injection demonstrated a similar trend with increased targeting of H-IGF1 compared with S-IGF1 treated mice (4.2±0.6 ng vs. 2.4±0.2 ng; p<0.05). In conclusion, our data demonstrate that intravenous delivery of Hoechst-conjugated IGF-1 increases myocardial targeting. This provides a novel strategy for delivery of growth factors for the treatment of MI.