Chen, Tzu YangTzu YangChenNENG-YU LINWen, Chih HaoChih HaoWenLin, Chih AnChih AnLinVenkatesan, ParthibanParthibanVenkatesanWijerathna, PrasannaPrasannaWijerathnaLin, Chung YuChung YuLinLai, Ping ShanPing ShanLai2024-01-092024-01-092023-05-1501418130https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/638267Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common systemic autoimmune disease in developed countries. In clinical treatment, steroids have been used as bridging and adjunctive therapy after disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug administration. However, the severe side effects caused by the nonspecific targeting of organs followed by long-term administration have limited their usage in RA. In this study, poorly water-soluble triamcinolone acetonide (TA), a highly potent corticosteroid for intra-articular injection, is conjugated on hyaluronic acid (HA) for intravenous purposes with increased specific drug accumulation in inflamed parts for RA. Our results demonstrate that the designed HA/TA coupling reaction reveals >98 % conjugation efficiency in the dimethyl sulfoxide/water system, and the resulting HA-TA conjugates show lower osteoblastic apoptosis compared with that in free TA-treated osteoblast-like NIH3T3 cells. Furthermore, in a collagen-antibody-induced arthritis animal study, HA-TA conjugates enhanced the initiative targeting ability to inflame tissue and reduce the histopathological arthritic changes (score = 0). Additionally, the level of bone formation marker P1NP in HA-TA-treated ovariectomized mice (303.6 ± 40.6 pg/mL) is significantly higher than that in the free TA-treated group (143.1 ± 3.9 pg/mL), indicating the potential for osteoporotic reduction using an efficient HA conjugation strategy for the long-term administration of steroids against RA.enHyaluronic acid | Poorly water-soluble corticosteroid | Rheumatoid arthritis[SDGs]SDG3journal article10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124047369335982-s2.0-85150387650https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85150387650