Celestrol-Loaded Nanoscale Micelles Derived from Dextran Sulfate/PVGLIG/Celestrol with MMP-2 Sensitivity for the Treatment of High-Fat-Diet-Induced Obesity

With the improvement of people’s living standards, obesity has become a health threat, but an effective drug treatment for obesity has not been found yet. Here, we suggest the use of celastrol, a pentacyclic triterpenoid from the traditional Chinese medicine Tripterygium wilfordii, which has a powerful antiobesity effect. Increasing studies have discovered that obesity is closely related to inflammation. In addition, MMP-2 enzyme is highly expressed in inflammatory sites. According to the principle of the prodrug, celastrol was used as a hydrophobic group, PVGLIG as a link, and dextran sulfate as a hydrophilic group to form a micelle (DS-PVGLIG-Cel). Celastrol was then loaded for the effective treatment of high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced obesity. MMP-2-sensitive assays confirmed that PVGLIG cleavage by MMP-2 enzymes favors the synchronous release of celastrol. A series of animal experiments tested that the preparation group has a strong weight loss effect. Our results suggest that this will shed light on a strategy for the subsequent effective treatment of HFD obesity.