Nanomedicine applied to cardiovascular diseases: latest developments

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of disability and they are currently responsible for a significant number of deaths in a large percentage of the world population. A large number of therapeutic options have been developed for the management of cardiovascular diseases. However, they are insufficient to stop or significantly reduce the progression of these diseases, and may produce unpleasant side effects. In this situation, the need arises to continue exploring new technologies and strategies in order to overcome the disadvantages and limitations of conventional therapeutic options. Thus, treatment of cardiovascular diseases has become one of the major focuses of scientific and technological development in recent times. More specifically, there have been important advances in the area of nanotechnology and the controlled release of drugs, destined to circumvent many limitations of conventional therapies for the treatment of diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke and thrombosis.

Therapeutic Applications of Curcumin Nanomedicine Formulations in Cardiovascular Diseases

“…However, its application as treatment has been hindered due to its intrinsic characteristics, such as low bioavailability, high rate of degradation, and low solubility in aqueous medium [91,99]. For these reasons, in recent years there has been an increasing interest for the development of CUR-loaded nanoformulations to overcome its pharmacokinetic limitations, which would permit to administer the compound as therapeutic agent for CVD [96,108].…”

“…Moreover, enhanced permeation and retention effect is one of the most important advantages of these systems which results in improving the circulation and accumulation of the loaded drug at the targeted sites, this means higher drug concentrations at the site of action which could help in minimizing the overall used dose and reduce adverse drug reactions [103]. Thus, leading to provision of agents and approaches specifically designed to improve CVD diagnosis and treatment [108,109].…”

Metallic Nanoantioxidants as Potential Therapeutics for Type 2 Diabetes: A Hypothetical Background and Translational Perspectives

“…These formulations are also used to diagnose and monitor the onset and progression of diseases [ 17 ]. Over the past two decades, clinical implementation of nanotechnology has led to both diagnostic and therapeutic advances in treatment of various chronic pathologies, including cardiovascular diseases [ 18 ], neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases [ 19 ], and cancer [ 20 ], as well as diabetes [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Application of the Nano-Drug Delivery System in Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases

“…At present, many kinds of drugs are applied for the treatment of hypertension, including angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, vascular angiotensin antagonists, central sympathetic nerve drugs, adrenergic receptor blockers, diuretics and vasodilators (Sharma et al, 2016). However, all these antihypertensive therapeutic drugs have obvious defects, including short plasma half-life, low bioavailability, toxic and side effects (upper respiratory tract abstraction, angioedema, reflex tachycardia, extreme hypotensive effect, and so on) (Alam et al, 2017;Martin et al, 2017;Niaz et al, 2017). Conversely, nanodrug carriers can provide prominent advantages mentioned above ( Table 4) ).…”