New Drug Delivery for Heart Disease

Researchers are researching liposomes as drug carriers that could be injected to directly target damaged areas of the arteries in patients with cardiovascular disease, potentially helping the patients avoid a heart attack.

Liposomes are produced from natural nontoxic phospholipids and cholesterol. They are already being used as carriers for water soluble anticancer drugs. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU, Cleveland, OH, USA) say these small spherical artificial vesicles, only 100 nm across or 1/100th the size of a single cell, are extremely versatile. For the liposome to succeed as a cardiovascular drug carrier, however, it must target and bind with damaged cells that have a unique surface receptor.

The research team is using a cell adhesion sequence to stabilize the weak outer structure of the liposome and help lead it directly to the GPllb-lla receptor expressed on the platelets that form in response to vascular injury and to coagulation factor VII-derived peptides that target the receptors on damaged endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells. The team plans to evaluate the targeting ability of liposomes in rat models. For the liposome to succeed as a cardiovascular drug carrier, its lifetime in the bloodstream must also increase. Current liposome systems last only about 12 hours, compared to normal red blood cells, which circulate for 120 days.

"Microscopic liposomes could carry drug therapy right to an injured vessel, helping patients to avoid heart attack,” said Roger Marchant, lead researcher and professor in the department of biomedical engineering at CWRU.




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