Nanoparticle chomps away plaques that cause heart attacks:
Michigan State University and Stanford University scientists have invented a nanoparticle that eats away—from the inside out—portions of plaques that cause heart attacks.
Bryan Smith, associate professor of biomedical engineering at MSU, and a team of scientists created a "Trojan Horse" nanoparticle that can be directed to eat debris, reducing and stabilizing plaque. The discovery could be a potential treatment for atherosclerosis, a leading cause of death in the United States.
The results, published in the current issue of Nature Nanotechnology, showcases the nanoparticle that homes in on atherosclerotic plaque due to its high selectivity to a particular immune cell type—monocytes and macrophages. Once inside the macrophages in those plaques, it delivers a drug agent that stimulates the cell to engulf and eat cellular debris. Basically, it removes the diseased/dead cells in the plaque core. By reinvigorating the macrophages, plaque size is reduced and stabilized.
[...] "We found we could stimulate the macrophages to selectively eat dead and dying cells—these inflammatory cells are precursor cells to atherosclerosis—that are part of the cause of heart attacks," Smith said. "We could deliver a small molecule inside the macrophages to tell them to begin eating again."
[...] "We were able to marry a groundbreaking finding in atherosclerosis by our collaborators with the state-of-the-art selectivity and delivery capabilities of our advanced nanomaterial platform. We demonstrated the nanomaterials were able to selectively seek out and deliver a message to the very cells needed," Smith said. "It gives a particular energy to our future work, which will include clinical translation of these nanomaterials using large animal models and human tissue tests. We believe it is better than previous methods."
Smith has filed a provisional patent and will begin marketing it later this year.
Journal Reference:
Alyssa M. Flores et al. Pro-efferocytic nanoparticles are specifically taken up by lesional macrophages and prevent atherosclerosis$, Nature Nanotechnology (DOI: 10.1038/s41565-019-0619-3)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:01AM (1 child)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 29 2020, @03:36AM
As I said to her I'll post with an account when this site bans anonymous posting. What has really stuck in my craw is that this site enforces its own version of a Code of Conduct while the primary admin shits on the very concept. I got banned for posting the links 2-3 times, then once more after the ban as a "fuck you" to that. Possibly upheld because I kept telling TMB to correct his fake news journal.
I've seen so much worse around here that took forever to get TMB to work on, yet here he is trying hard to prevent me from using TOR to continue posting. I have not spammed again, so why is he so motivated to censor me? The hypocrisy after all the whining about FAANG de-platforming conservatives is just too much for me.
This community should take a good look at itself and either follow its own rules better or just admit there is a bias from editors and admins. By the spam descriptions on the site my posts did not qualify. They were trolling at worst, again by the site's standards. I don't recall "series of contracts" guy ever getting a spam ban, he just constantly complained about being down modded.
After the various accusations that have gone around I am calling out the people that run this site. They aren't all bad, but TMB is definitely into abuse of power when he can get away with it.