Delivery of Oleanolic Acid with Improved Antifibrosis Efficacy by a Cell Penetrating Peptide P10

Oleanolicacid (OA), a common pentacyclic triterpenoid found inplants, has several therapeutic uses, including the treatment of hepatopathydisorders. However, due to OA's weak permeability and limitedbioavailability, its therapeutic advantages are limited. Here, weshowed that a short peptide known as p10 not only binds to OA butalso rapidly enhances OA delivery into cultured hepatic stellate cells(HSCs), lowers their synthesis of fibrogenic proteins, and furtherreduces the HSC migration capacity. Our findings show that noncovalentlyconjugating short peptides to OA improves its pharmacological efficacyand permeability.