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Targeting Atherosclerotic Plaques with Stents made of Drug-eluting Biomaterials

Reporter: Daniel Menzin, BSc BioMedical Engineering, expected, May 2021, Research Assistant 4, Core Applications Developer and Acting CTO 

 

Atherosclerosis is a chronic cardiovascular disease with a multitude of different implications. A coronary artery plaque may lead to congestive heart failure while an aortic plaque may cause angina. Both can quite possibly lead to a heart attack unless properly managed. One way to manage this condition is through the use of stents made of a mesh that is expanded following placement into the diseased vessel.

Unfortunately, stents are oftentimes initially effective but eventually restenosis occurs. Restenosis is a condition in which the affected vessel becomes blocked again. Cholesterol-rich blood vessel environments oftentimes lead to an irritation that results in white blood cells aggregating in the area and releasing proinflammatory chemokines and cytokines, which cause fibrosis. To make matters worse, the cholesterol plaques undergo compression against the vessel wall which causes vessel injury and further inflammation. This leads to thrombus formation and may potentiate neointimal hyperplasia, an abnormal proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells in the tunica intima. Neointimal hyperplasia plays a major role in restenosis.

Recent research has found that interfacing drug eluting biomaterials with stents may help prevent restenosis. One study showed that rapamycin delivered with acid labile and ROS-sensitive forms of Beta-cyclodextrin produced promising results when treating atherosclerosis in rat models (Dou, et al). In this promising new paradigm of treatment, non-proinflammatory biomaterials are interfaced with stents. Once inflammation appears the biomaterial will begin to degrade, slowly releasing the drug which suppresses the underlying immune reaction and the resulting inflammation.

 

SOURCE

Dou Y;Chen Y;Zhang X;Xu X;Chen Y;Guo J;Zhang D;Wang R;Li X;Zhang J; “Non-Proinflammatory and Responsive Nanoplatforms for Targeted Treatment of Atherosclerosis.” Biomaterials, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 29 July 2017, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28778000/.

 

Other related articles published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include: 

75 articles found in the search 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/?s=drug+eluting+stents

 

Among them:

Stent Design and Thrombosis:  Bifurcation Intervention, Drug Eluting Stents (DES) and Biodegrable Stents

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/06/stent-design-and-thrombosis-bifurcation-intervention-drug-eluting-stents-des-and-biodegrable-stents/

 

Drug Eluting Stents: On MIT‘s Edelman Lab’s Contributions to Vascular Biology and its Pioneering Research on DES

Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/25/contributions-to-vascular-biology/