Originally published December 7 2005
Nanoparticles being used by researchers to diagnose atherosclerosis
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Biomedical engineer Shelton Caruthers of Washington University is leading a team of researchers who are using nanoparticles to detect narrowed arteries that can lead to serious complications, including heart attack and stroke.
Biomedical engineer Shelton Caruthers and his team at Washington University in St. Louis are short-circuiting this deadly progression using nanoparticles to detect arterial obstructions before they can cause serious damage.
Caruthers' early-detection solution is to inject patients with 200-nanometer-long particles whose surfaces are modified to bind to avb3, a proteinlike compound the body uses to form new blood vessels.
Because arterial plaques spawn networks of capillaries that supply them with the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow, the avb3-binding nanoparticles cluster in areas where plaques are beginning to form.
"As the particles pass by the vessels, they stick and hold, because there's a molecular arm that grabs onto the avb3."
"You can't see it right away, but as the particles circulate, they start to accumulate," Caruthers said.
After about two to four hours, enough of the glowing particles have amassed to enable a doctor to easily pinpoint the locations of new plaque deposits.
To test the effectiveness of the targeted particles, the team put white rabbits on a high-cholesterol diet for 80 days, then injected them with avb3-targeting nanoparticles.
When the researchers took MRI images of the animals' abdominal aortas -- one of the largest arteries in the body -- they could clearly see clumps of nanoparticles surrounding diseased areas of the vessels.
A control group of rabbits that had been fed a normal diet during the treatment period showed no such accumulations.
Caruthers and his colleagues, including project leaders Patrick Winter and Samuel Wickline, think their technique will eventually be used to screen patients suspected to be in the initial phases of cardiovascular disease.
What's still unclear at this point, Beardsley believes, is how early detection of cardiovascular disease will affect treatment strategies.
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