PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD In 2008, UCLA researchers discovered that pollutant nanoparticles -- less than one-thousandth the size of a human hair -- can damage heart health by lowering “good” cholesterol levels. It is fitting, then, that these tiny particles can also be used to repair damaged arteries. MIT and Harvard researchers have taken work using nanoparticles in cancer treatment and are focusing on applications for heart disease.
The nanoparticles, or nanoburs, seek out damaged arterial tissue and slowly release drugs, such as paclitaxel (to keep arteries open and prevent scar tissue from forming), to the vascular walls. These drug-infused missiles target exposed basement membrane, which lines the walls of arteries.
Traditionally, stents have been used to treat damaged arteries by propping them open. Many of these are coated with drugs, again, like paclitaxel. However, recent studies have found stents to be much overused and not effective in certain areas of the body, such as near a “fork in the artery.” It is hoped that nanoburs will be used in conjunction with or in place of stents. One upside is that nanoburs can be injected via IV, so patients would not have to undergo invasive and possibly risky surgeries.
The structure and design of these nanoparticles offers other benefits. The MIT and Harvard researchers built the nanobur with a sequence of amino acids, called C11, as a coating. Inside the core is the drug, which is attached to a polymer chain. As the drug detaches from the polymer chain, it is released to the artery walls. This design allows scientists to manipulate the release of the drug.
The structure of the nanoburs has other benefits: It can reduce the risk that the nanoburs will burst and release drugs into the system in an unsafe manner; and pharmaceutical manufacturing is likely to be much easier because the polymers that are targeted attach to the shell, not the drug core. If attached to the drug-carrying core, the chemical reaction required would be much more complex and harder to manufacture.
“This is a very exciting example of nanotechnology and cell targeting in action that I hope will have broad ramifications,” says the study’s senior author, Robert Langer of MIT -- a hope shared by the 81 million Americans who suffer from cardiovascular disease.
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