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Rodent of the Week: Nanoparticles that target heart disease

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A new weapon for heart disease may lie in nanoparticles that can attack plaque in the arteries of the heart. A nanoparticle is a microscopic particle that is small enough to enter cells and carry out functions within cells. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter. In comparison, the diameter of a human hair is 100,000 nanometers. Researchers are very high on using nanoparticles in medicine. The National Institutes of Health has an ambitious research program testing nanoparticles to find tiny cancer cells before tumors form, repair broken or damaged parts of cells or as vehicles to deliver medicines where they are needed in the body. Nanoparticles are made from common materials, but when reduced to nanosize, the physical properties of these materials become uniquely altered and can perform new functions.

In the new study, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at UC San Barbara developed a fat-based collection of molecules that form a sphere called a micelle. The micelle contained a peptide (a building block of protein) that binds to the surface of plaque. Plaque is that sticky stuff that builds up in arteries and can trigger heart attacks and strokes.

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In the study, mice that had been fed a high-fat diet were injected with micelles. The micelles were designed to locate the plaque and deliver a drug that inhibits blood clotting. The researchers used a fluorescent dye to show that the micelles attached to the plaque.

‘The key to why nanomedicines are thought to be so promising is one can make them carry out many functions, which isn’t possible with a simple drug,’ said the lead author of the study, Erkki Ruoslahti of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at UC Santa Barbara. He calls such inventions ‘Theranostics,’ meaning a particle that functions both as a diagnostic tool and to deliver a therapy.

The researchers also showed that the micelles were able to target the most vulnerable plaques, which could rupture and cause a heart attack or stroke.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health. More information on the nanotechnology research project can be found on the NIH website.

-- Shari Roan

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