Nanoparticle-Mediated Drug Delivery for Treatment of Ischemic Heart Disease

Abstract

The regenerative capacity of an adult cardiac tissue is insufficient to repair the massive loss of heart tissue, particularly cardiomyocytes (CMs), following ischemia or other catastrophic myocardial injuries. The delivery methods of therapeutics agents, such as small molecules, growth factors, exosomes, cells, and engineered tissues have significantly advanced in medical science. Furthermore, with the controlled release characteristics, nanoparticle (NP) systems carrying drugs are promising in enhancing the cardioprotective potential of drugs in patients with cardiac ischemic events. NPs can provide sustained exposure precisely to the infarcted heart via direct intramyocardial injection or intravenous injection with active targets. In this review, we present the recent advances and challenges of different types of NPs loaded with agents for the repair of myocardial infarcted heart tissue.

Adding a “Notch” to Cardiovascular Disease Therapeutics: A MicroRNA-Based Approach

“…Specifically, NPs can be loaded with antibodies, cell-specific ligands, and aptamers that can recognize a specific cell. To date, NPs targeting macrophages ( Hu G. et al, 2019 ), tumor endothelial cells ( Sakurai et al, 2019 ), cardiac cells ( Fan et al, 2020 ) and VSMCs ( Kona et al, 2012 ) have been developed. When attempting to target Notch for CVDs, this ability of miRNA-loaded NPs to target a specific cell is crucial since, as discussed: (1) the role of Notch signaling is dependent on the cell context and (2) specific miRNAs (e.g., miR-21 and miR-29 in cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts) can differently affect each myocardial cell type.…”

Nanomaterials as Novel Cardiovascular Theranostics

“…Most recently, Chinese traditional medicine combined with solid lipid nanoparticles was patented (CN103027981B) to treat coronary heart disease efficiently. Though considerable progress has been made in patenting the nanotherapeutics in diagnosing and treating CVDs, their translation into clinical settings remains obscured due to stringent regulatory guidelines in developing nano-based therapeutics [ 131 , 132 ].…”

Expedition into Exosome Biology: A Perspective of Progress from Discovery to Therapeutic Development

“…In addition, to the efforts being made to increase stability during long-term storage, research is also being conducted to identify means of delivering drugs to tumors located in fragile tissues [ 220 , 221 ]. Administration of exosome-based therapeutics via intravenous injection has been commonly used to deliver drugs to brain, pancreas, and tumors in other tissues [ 165 , 167 , 168 , 172 , 198 , 222 , 223 , 224 , 225 , 226 ], and the endogenic origins of exosomes help them escape removal by immune cells [ 227 ]. Exosome-based delivery of therapeutics increases drug stability and enables high drug loadings in body fluids [ 227 ], and lack of lymphatic drainage and the presence of fewer blood vessels aid in the retention of exosomes in tumorigenic tissues [ 12 , 228 , 229 ], which enhances their therapeutic efficacies.…”