Stents as a platform for drug delivery

Abstract

With an in-depth understanding of drug properties, tissue/organ biology and disease conditions, stent drug delivery systems can be improved further, to endow the stents with better efficacy and safety, along with lower toxicity. There is also a great need for stents that can simultaneously deliver multiple drugs, to treat complex diseases from multiple aspects, or to treat several diseases at the same time. Drug release kinetics greatly determines the stent performance, thus effective strategies should also be developed to achieve customized kinetics.

Gefitinib/gefitinib microspheres loaded polyurethane constructs as drug-eluting stent coating

“…Stents are hollow devices that are inserted in an obstructed natural passage (such as the coronary artery) to open and prevent its blockage (Chen et al, 2015;Lei et al, 2011). Since 1986, bare metal stents (BMS) have been used to treat stenosis (Puel et al, 1987;Roguin, 2011), however, one of the most common problems with these stents is neointimal proliferation (i.e., re-stenosis) (Chen et al, 2006).…”

A highly flexible paclitaxel-loaded poly(ε-caprolactone) electrospun fibrous-membrane-covered stent for benign cardia stricture

“…Many coating techniques and approaches have been used for drug-coated stents to alter the dose, duration, release kinetics and clinical outcomes. These properties are critically important for esophageal stents, as the coating layer is in direct contact with esophageal intimal tissues to inhibit hyperplasia and inflammation [11,12]. Some studies of coating technologies for esophageal stents are presently available for laboratory and clinical applications.…”

Designing the Biocompatibility of Biohybrids

“…restenosis [44] and tissue engineered vessels [45]. Here, synthetic non-degradable polymers, partly with functionalized surfaces, are used as well as degradable polymeric scaffolds and biopolymers.…”