Heart nanotechnology is "Engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale" ("Nanotechnology Research").
Video Heart nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology deals with structures and materials that are about one to one hundred nanometers in length. At this microscopic level, quantum mechanics takes place and applies, resulting in behavior that would look very strange compared to what humans see with the naked eye (regular matter). Nanotechnology is used for various fields of technology, from energy to electronics to drugs. In the drug category, nanotechnology is still relatively new and has not been widely adopted by the field. It is possible that nanotechnology could be a new breakthrough in medicine and could eventually be a solution and a remedy for many of the health problems facing humans. Nanotechnology can lead to cures for diseases such as colds, illness, and cancer. It has started to be used as a treatment for some serious health problems; more specifically used to treat heart and cancer.
Maps Heart nanotechnology
Nanomedicine
Nanotechnology in medicine is more commonly referred to as nanomedicine. Nanomedicine-related cardiac help really starts to take off and gains in popularity compared to most other fields that currently offer nanomedicine. There are several heart problems that nanotechnology has promising evidence of being effective in the treatment of heart disease in the near future.
Example
Hopefully can cure a broken heart valve; and detect and treat arterial plaque in the heart ("Nanotechnology Made Clear"). Nanomedicine should be able to help heal the hearts of people who have become victims of heart disease and heart attacks. On the other hand, it will also play a key role in finding people with a high risk of having heart disease, and will be able to help prevent heart attacks from happening in the first place. Cardioth Nanotechnology is much less invasive than surgery because it all occurs at a very small rate in the body compared to the relatively large tissues that are handled in surgery. With our technology today, heart surgery is performed to treat heart tissue damaged by heart attacks. This is a major operation that usually takes several months to recover from ("WebMD - Better Information, Better Health"). During this period, patients are very limited in activities they can do. This long recovery process is an inconvenience for the patient, and with the growth of the drug is likely to not be long before more efficient methods to treat heart attack patients will be developed and used. The method that is a precursor to replacing major heart surgery is the use of nanotechnology. There are several alternative ways of heart nanotechnology surgery that can potentially be offered in the future.
Alternative for operations
With people who have heart disease or who have suffered a heart attack, their hearts are often damaged and weakened. The minor forms of heart failure require no surgery and are often treated with medication ("WebMD - Better Information, Better Health"). The use of nanotechnology to treat a damaged heart will not replace these lighter heart problems, but rather to more serious heart problems that now require surgery or sometimes even a heart transplant.
Heart repair
A group of materials engineers, physicians and materials scientists at MIT and Children's Hospital of Boston have teamed up and embarked on a movement looking for ways to use nanotechnology to strengthen weak heart tissue ("MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology"). The first method of using nanotechnology is combined with tissue engineering, and gold nanowires are placed and woven into damaged parts of the heart, essentially replacing non-functioning or dead tissue.
Network regeneration
Another approach would be to potentially use very small nanoparticles that will travel through the body and find a dying heart tissue. Nanoparticles will carry objects such as "stem cells, growth factors, drugs and other therapeutic compounds,". Then the nanoparticles will release the compound and inject it into damaged heart tissue. This will theoretically lead to tissue regeneration.
Fixed heart problems
Able to repair heart tissue that has been damaged by heart attack or heart disease is not so simple and this is one of the main challenges currently in the field of tissue engineering ("Popular Science"). This is because heart cells are not the easiest to make in the laboratory. It takes a huge amount of special attention and works to develop the cells so that they pulsate with each other ("Popular Science"). Even after cardiac cells are finally made, it is also a great task to insert cells into the inoperable parts of the heart and to get them to work together with a well-functioning tissue ("Popular Science").
Heart patch
There are several successful examples of this with the use of "stem cell-based heart patch developed by Duke University researchers," ("Popular Science"). Biomaterials that form patches are usually made of biological polymers such as alginate or synthetic polymers such as polylactic acid ("Nature Nanotechnology"). These materials are good at organizing cells into functioning tissues; However they act as bad insulators and electrical conductors, which is a major problem especially in the heart ("Nature Nanotechnology"). Because the electrical signals sent between calcium ions are what controls when cardiomyocytes from the heart contract, which makes the heart beat, the stem cell heart patch is not very efficient and is not as effective as the doctor wants. ("Popular science"). The less conductive patch results are the cells unable to achieve a smooth, continuous tap on the entire tissue containing the stem cells. This results in the heart not functioning properly, which in turn can mean that more heart problems may arise due to the planting of stem cells.
Tissue scaffolds
Recently there have been several new developments in the field of nanotechnology that will be more efficient than poorly stem cell based patches ("Nature Nanotechnology"). Scientists and researchers found a way to patch stem cells (also known as tissue scaffolding) to become conductive and therefore become more exponentially more effective ("Nature Nanotechnology"). They found that by growing gold nanowires into and through patches, they can increase electrical conductivity. The nanowires are thicker than the original scaffold and the cells are also more regular. There is also an increase in protein production required to bind and contraction the calcium muscle. Gold nanowires poke through the stem cell scaffold, which strengthens the electrical communication between the surrounding heart cells. Without nanowires, the stem cell patch generates minute current and the cells will only beat in small clusters on the origin of the stimulation. With nanowires, cells seem to contract together even as they cluster away from sources of stimulation. The use of gold nanowires with stem cell heart patches is still a relatively new concept and it may be some time before they will be used in humans. It is expected that nanowires will be tested on live animals in the near future.
Nanoparticles
Another way that nanotechnology would be potentially used to help repair damaged heart tissue is through the use of guided nanoparticle "missiles". These nanoparticles can be attached to and attached to the artery walls and secrete drugs at a slow rate ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology"). The particles, known as nanoburrs due to the fact that they are coated with small protein fragments that stick to and target specific proteins. Nanoburrs can be made to release the drugs attached to them for several days ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology"). They are unique in comparison to ordinary medicines because they can find damaged tissue, attach to it, and release the drug load attached to it ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology"). What happens is that nanoburrs are targeted to certain structures, known as basement membranes; This membrane lining the artery walls and only exists if the area is damaged. Nanoburrs can carry medicines that are effective in treating the heart, and also have the potential to carry stem cells to help regenerate damaged heart tissue ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology").
Composition
The particles consist of three distinct layers and a diameter of sixty nanometers ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology"). The outer layer is a polymer layer called PEG, and its job is to protect the drug from the disintegration of the moment. traveling through the body. The middle layer comprises the fatty substance and the core in the actual drug containing along with the polymer chain, which controls the amount of time it takes before the drug is released ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology").
Research
In a study conducted on mice, the nanoparticles were injected directly into the rat tail and they were still able to reach the desired target (left carotid artery) at a level that doubled the number of untargeted nanoparticles ("MIT- Institute of Technology Massachusetts"). Because the particles can transmit the drug for long periods of time, and can be injected intravenously, the patient does not need to do repeated injections, or invasive surgery on the heart that will be much more comfortable. The only drawback is that the approach to labor is invasive, requiring direct injection into the heart, catheter procedure, or surgical implant. There is no question, however, that the future of heart repair and the prevention of heart disease/attack will inevitably involve the use of nanotechnology in several ways.
Polyketal nanoparticles
Composition
Polyketal Nanoparticles are pH-sensitive hydrophobic nanoparticles formulated from poly (1-4-phenyleneacetone dimethylene ketal). They are carriers of acid-sensitive drug delivery, specifically designed to target tumor, phagosome, and inflammatory tissue environments. In such an acid environment, these nanoparticles accelerate hydrolysis into low molecular weight hydrophilic compounds, thereby releasing their therapeutic content at a faster rate. Unlike polyester-based nanoparticles, polyketal nanoparticles do not produce acid degradation products after hydrolysis
Use in myocardial infarction
Post-myocardial infarction, inflammatory leukocytes attack myocardium. Leukocytes contain high amounts of Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and Nox2. Nox2 and NADPH oxidase combine to act as the main source of cardiac superoxide production, which can excessively lead to myocyte hypertrophy, apoptosis, fibrosis, and increased expression of metalloproteinase-2 matrices. In a mouse model study by Somasuntharam et al. 2013, polyketal nanoparticles are used as delivery vehicles for siRNA to target and inhibit Nox2 in the heart of the infarct. After intramyocardial injection in vivo, NOx2-siRNA nanoparticles prevent increased NOx2-NADPH oxidase regulation, and improve fractional shortening. When taken by macrophages in the myocardium after MI, the nanoparticles are degraded in the acidic environment of the endosomes/phagosomes, releasing the nox2-specific siRNA into the cytoplasm.
Source of the article : Wikipedia