Targeted delivery of geranylgeranylacetone to mitochondria by triphenylphosphonium modified nanoparticles: a promising strategy to prevent aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss.

Prevention of hair cell death is an important target for the prevention of hearing loss. Here, we report the engineering of biodegradable poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (PLGA NPs) decorated with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) cations as a robust mitochondrial delivery platform, with the aim of preserving mitochondrial integrity and shutting off the initiation of cell death. Geranylgeranylacetone (GGA), a 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) inducer, was used as a therapeutic molecule to attenuate gentamicin (Gen) induced hearing loss. The diameter of the mitochondria-targeting NPs is 145 nm and the encapsulation efficiency is 80.6%. Lysosomal escape and mitochondrial targeting studies indicated the promising therapeutic potential of TPP modified NPs. Finally, the zebrafish lateral line model was applied to verify the efficacy of the GGA loaded targeting NPs for preventing gentamicin-induced death hair cell. The results showed that the prepared targeted NPs provided significant protection: the survival of hair cells increased from 36% to 69% under acute exposure and from 20% to 62% under chronic exposure. In addition, targeted NPs exhibited significantly improved efficiency in alleviating gentamicin-induced hair cell damage compared with free drugs and untargeted NPs, supporting the hypothesis of mitochondrial targeting delivery in the treatment of aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss. These TPP modified NPs demonstrated promise for the treatment of mitochondrial dysfunction.