Mesoporous hydroxyapatite as a carrier of olanzapine for long-acting antidepression treatment in rats with induced depression

An antidepressant carrier, mesoporous hydroxyapatite olanzapine (mesoHAP-OLZ), was designed to maintain 3 weeks of constant medication release. The carrier was intramuscularly (IM) injected, where cellular activity played a role in achieving the goal of constant release. The efficiency of the treatment was evaluated from 3 perspectives in in vivo studies: locomotor activities, biomarkers, and learning and memory ability. MesoHAP-OLZ can increase the locomotor activity in rats with induced depression determined by open field test (OFT) and forced swim test (FST). Serotonin (5-HT), one of the most important biomarker in depression can also be increased by mesoHAP-OLZ, leading to increased hippocampus activity as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). MesoHAP-OLZ can also improve learning and memory ability in rats with induced depression during Morris water maze (MWM) test. Our findings further show that mesoHAP-OLZ can provide long-term drug release with a single IM injection, helping to solve the problem of non-adherent medication intake that often occurs in antidepressant therapy.

Graphical abstractAfter IM injection, mesoHAP-OLZ is engulfed by macrophages and the lysosome/endosome hybrid is broken down by osmosis, which facilitates delivery of OLZ into the bloodstream for various analyses.Download high-res image (186KB)Download full-size image