New Stroke Treatment Combines Injectable Clot-Busting Nanotherapeutic With Intra-Arterial Device

Scientists have developed a new drug-device combination for the treatment of stroke-causing blood clots has been developed. The new treatment has a lower risk microclot formation when compared to the currently used procedure - stent-retriever thrombectomy. According to the scientists the drug-device combination can rapidly dissolve stroke-causing clots in blood vessels located in the brain. The new treatment combines an injectable clot-breaking nanotherapeutic with an intra-arterial stent to remove blockages and restore the flow of blood in clogged blood vessels.

The nanotherapeutic was developed at the Wyss Institute, Boston, United States. The nanotherapeutic consists of a cluster of biodegradable nanoparticles onto which a coating of a tissue plasminogen activator, a clot degrading drug, is applied.

The tissue plasminogen activator coating effectively mimics the behavior of blood platelets in our body. Resulting in an increase in the local blood pressure, clots limit the passage of blood through vessels. The increase in pressure functions as a physical signal that causes platelets to stick to the walls of the vessel.

In that same way, the nanotherapeutic also reacts to an increase in local blood pressure by releasing tPA-coated nanoparticles which can then dissolve the clot.

“What’s progressive about this approach is that the temporary opening of a tiny hole in the clot—using a stent device that is already commonly used clinically—results in a local rise in mechanical forces that activate the nanotherapeutic to deploy the clot-busting drug precisely where it can best do its job,” said Dr. Ingber, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The research will be published in the journal, Stroke.

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Source-Medindia