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news.Thanks to nanotechnology, in laboratory tests, one very low dose of fumagillin was potent enough to show an effect on notoriously tenacious artery-clogging plaques. Researchers say this effect came about not so much because of the drug itself but how it was delivered.
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Fumagillin – a drug that can inhibit the growth of new blood vessels that feed atherosclerotic plaques – was sent directly to the base of plaques by microscopically small spheres called nanoparticles developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.
“Previously we reported that we can visualize plaques using our nanoparticle technology, but this is the first time we’ve demonstrated that the nanoparticles can also deliver a drug to a disease site in a living organism,” said Dr Patrick Winter, research assistant professor of medicine. “After a single dose in laboratory rabbits, fumagillin nanoparticles markedly reduced the growth of new blood vessels that feed plaques.”
An atherosclerosis plaque results when a buildup of cholesterol, inflammatory cells and fibrous tissue forms inside an artery. While growing, plaques require an influx of nutrients, fats and cells, so they develop their own blood supply. Many believe that cutting off this blood supply could stabilize or reduce plaques. In previous studies, fumagillin has been shown to be an effective agent for stopping the process that creates new blood vessels.
Riding on the nanoparticles, fumagillin is carried to the site of new blood vessel formation and stays there thanks to a fellow nanoparticle passenger – a component that fastens the nanoparticles to cells found in newly developing blood vessels. Stuck in this position, the nanoparticle drops its load of fumagillin, concentrating it at the site of the atherosclerotic plaque.
In a study, the single dosage of fumagillin each rabbit received was 50,000 times lower than the total fumagillin dose used in an earlier experiment by another research group and yet reduced the growth of new blood vessels in plaques by 60% to 80%.
“Fumagillin can have neurocognitive side effects, causing injury to the brain at high doses,” Dr Winter said. “The ability of the nanoparticles to concentrate the drug at the disease site allows the dose to be lowered. This could open the door for a lot of drugs that have failed to be approved because they caused too many side effects at a higher dose.”
The microscopic spheres are capable of carrying a variety of components at the same time and can be detected with standard MRI scans, making them useful for imaging disease sites while simultaneously treating them. Using the nanoparticles, a physician can confirm a drug has reached the desired location, measure the amount of drug at the site, and later check to see if the drug has affected the disease.