According to statistics, cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, are the leading cause of mortality around the globe. But unfortunately, traditional therapy doesn’t always bear fruits, and the same also relates to rare conditions. That’s why there is a massive demand for more advanced treatment based on innovative nanotechnology concepts.
Our core task is to determine how nanomedicine can facilitate treatment for rare diseases and cardiovascular conditions. To be more precise, we will overview the Fabry disease and atherosclerosis as representative examples of disorders mentioned above.
Nanomedicine and Fabry Disease
People with Fabry disorder don’t have a sufficient enzyme amount (blood chemicals) responsible for breaking down lipids or fats. Such enzymes prevent the fat-like substances from accumulating in blood vessels and tissue. This genetic disease, also called Anderson-Fabry, is hazardous since it may affect the brain, central nervous system, kidneys, heart, and skin. Plus, controlling severe pain episodes with conventional analgesics is highly challenging, and the overall recovery process is time-consuming.
Traditional therapy provides intravenous delivery of the GLA enzyme. Still, it shows limited efficiency and bad biodistribution. Thus, nanomedicine treatment for rare diseases, Fabry disorder in our case, is just salvation. Newly developed drugs stand as impeccable nanoformulation of GLA. Compared to standard enzyme replacement treatments, non-invasive delivery of nanomedicines with GLA components via smart nanoliposome puts more successful outcomes. Besides, intravenous administration of GLA enzymes displays high risks of side effects.
Nanomedicine and Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis implies a chronic inflammatory disease causing arterial wall thickening, which supplies blood to organs like the brain, heart, and kidney. This disorder provokes heart attacks, strokes, cerebral vascular accidents, and cardiac arrests. Atherosclerosis treatment might be medical and surgical. Still, recent research has proved nanomedicines the most effective alternative.
Nanoparticles use boosted permeability and retention effects to exact drug administration to atherosclerotic plaques. This, in turn, promotes reduced tissue damage. In addition, such a nano-approach showcases immense potential in enhancing drug efficiency, prolonging nanomedicine action, targeting passively or actively, and ameliorating bioavailability.
Basically, atherosclerosis treatment has at its root a few types of nanocarriers. They involve:
Lipid-based nanoparticles. Patients may benefit from such favorable characteristics of drugs as high biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and incredible medication protection from enzymatic degradation. Moreover, these nanomedicines don’t lead to arterial wall inflammation.
Polymeric nanocarriers. PLGA-based drug delivery is another valuable solution for new treatments due to its controlled medication release and biocompatible properties. Such polymeric NPs cover the surface of stainless-steel stents which act as drug administration carriers. This system always accurately reaches its destination and appears as the miracle of the non-invasive delivery of nanomedicines.
Metal nanoparticles. 1-100 nm dimension metals are possible to modify by adding different chemical functional groups to encourage their cooperation with other therapeutic elements. Various metal NPs like iron oxide, gold, and silver differently demonstrate their specific impact on atherosclerosis therapy. For example, target gold nanocarriers may induce neovascularization and eliminate CVDs. Meanwhile, iron oxide nanoparticles are applied as contrast agents for the MRI and targeted drug delivery, stem cell monitoring, magnetic separation technologies, and gene therapy of atherosclerosis.
