Inside Out
Doireann Hockel
Doireann Hockel
A new biomaterial has been discovered that can be injected intravenously. The material reduces inflammation and promotes cell and tissue repair. It has been proven successful in rodents and large animals which have damaged hearts due to heart attacks; however, researchers have proven that the material’s usefulness could extend to brain injuries and pulmonary arterial hypertension, which is where blood vessels in the lungs are narrowed, blocked or destroyed, creating strain on the heart. In essence, the biomaterial heals these tissues from the inside out.
The reason this is so ground-breaking is as follows. Scar tissue develops after a heart attack, and this leads to inadequate heart muscle function, which can lead to heart failure. And to make it worse, there is currently no treatment for this damaged tissue. The best that has been produced is a hydro-gel which is injected via a catheter directly onto the damaged tissue, acting as scaffolding and promoting new cell growth. However, because this needs to be injected straight into the heart, it cannot be applied until a week after the episode. Scientists have been trying to find a treatment that can be applied immediately - this biomaterial can.
Another advantage of the biomaterial is that it gets evenly distributed throughout damaged tissue because it's infused or injected intravenously. Hydrogel, on the other hand, remains in specific locations and doesn't spread out.
The biomaterial is made by putting the liquid precursor of the hydrogel into a centrifuge, resulting in the nano-sized particles being separated from the ones too large to be applied to a leaky blood vessel. The resulting material is put through dialysis and sterile filtering before being freeze dried to make it a powder. Adding sterile water to the final powder results in a biomaterial that can be injected intravenously or infused into a coronary artery in the heart.
Initially, scientists predicted the material would pass through the gaps in tissue which form after a heart attack. Instead, the material binds to the cells with gaps, closing them and accelerating the healing process – reducing inflammation as a result. The material gives similar results in other types of inflammation in rats, including traumatic brain injury and the pulmonary arterial hypertension mentioned previously.
This biomaterial could be the future of cardiovascular, and indeed neurological, medicine, and is being moved onto preclinical trials, meaning that human clinical trials may begin in one or two years.