Biomimetic nanomedicines for precise atherosclerosis theranostics

The interaction between particles and vascular endothelium in blood flow

Particle-based drug delivery systems have shown promising application potential to treat human diseases; however, an incomplete understanding of their interactions with vascular endothelium in blood flow prevents their inclusion into mainstream clinical applications. The flow performance of nano/micro-sized particles in the blood are disturbed by many external/internal factors, including blood constituents, particle properties, and endothelium bioactivities, affecting the fate of particles in vivo and therapeutic effects for diseases. This review highlights how the blood constituents, hemodynamic environment and particle properties influence the interactions and particle activities in vivo. Moreover, we briefly summarized the structure and functions of endothelium and simulated devices for studying particle performance under blood flow conditions. Finally, based on particle-endothelium interactions, we propose future opportunities for novel therapeutic strategies and provide solutions to challenges in particle delivery systems for accelerating their clinical translation. This review helps provoke an increasing in-depth understanding of particle-endothelium interactions and inspires more strategies that may benefit the development of particle medicine.

Design and Fabrication of Environmentally Responsive Nanoparticles for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Atherosclerosis

Cardiovascular disease poses a significant threat to human health in today's society. A major contributor to cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis (AS). The development of plaque in the affected areas involves a complex pathological environment, and the disease progresses rapidly. Nanotechnology, combined with emerging diagnostic and treatment methods, offers the potential for the management of this condition. This paper presents the latest advancements in environment-intelligent responsive controlled-release nanoparticles designed specifically for the pathological environment of AS, which includes characteristics such as low pH, high reactive oxygen species levels, high shear stress, and multienzymes. Additionally, the paper summarizes the applications and features of nanotechnology in interventional therapy for AS, including percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and drug-eluting stents. Furthermore, the application of nanotechnology in the diagnosis of AS shows promising real-time, accurate, and continuous effects. Lastly, the paper explores the future prospects of nanotechnology, highlighting the tremendous potential in the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerotic diseases, especially with the ongoing development in nano gas, quantum dots, and Metal-Organic Frameworks materials.

A bibliometric and visualized analysis of nanoparticles in musculoskeletal diseases (from 2013 to 2023)

As the pace of research on nanomedicine for musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases accelerates, there remains a lack of comprehensive analysis regarding the development trajectory, primary authors, and research focal points in this domain. Additionally, there's a need of detailed elucidation of potential research hotspots. The study gathered articles and reviews focusing on the utilization of nanoparticles (NPs) for MSK diseases published between 2013 and 2023, extracted from the Web of Science database. Bibliometric and visualization analyses were conducted using various tools such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Pajek, Scimago Graphica, and the R package. China, the USA, and India emerged as the key drivers in this research domain. Among the numerous institutions involved, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Sichuan University exhibited the highest productivity levels. Vallet-Regi Maria emerged as the most prolific author in this field. International Journal of Nanomedicine accounted for the largest number of publications in this area. The top five disorders of utmost significance in this field include osteosarcoma, cartilage diseases, bone fractures, bone neoplasms, and joint diseases. These findings are instrumental in providing researchers with a comprehensive understanding of this domain and offer valuable perspectives for future investigations.

Natural Antioxidant-Based Nanodrug for Atherosclerosis Treatment

Natural antioxidants are always considered as candidates for the antioxidative therapy of atherosclerosis (AS) due to their good safety profile. However, restricted to their limited reactive oxygen species (ROS) elimination and rapid metabolism, the natural antioxidants' treatment suffers from the undesirable clinical outcomes. Herein, a new natural antioxidant-based nanodrug (VC@cLAVs) that can overcome above issues is developed to treat AS by loading natural antioxidant vitamin C (VC) into the natural antioxidant lipoic acid (LA)-constructed cross-linked vesicles. This integration not only greatly increases the blood half-life of natural antioxidants, but also amplifies the antioxidation capacity by the mutual recycling of two redox pairs LA/DHLA (reduced form of LA) and VC/DHA (oxidized form of VC). In vivo results disclose that VC@cLAVs decreases the apolipoprotein E-deficient mice's plaque area from 52% to 13%, much lower than those of free VC (≈45%) and LA (≈38%). This natural antioxidant-based nanodrug holds great potential in clinics.

Recent Advances in Anti-Atherosclerosis and Potential Therapeutic Targets for Nanomaterial-Derived Drug Formulations

Atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death worldwide, is responsible for ≈17.6 million deaths globally each year. Most therapeutic drugs for atherosclerosis have low delivery efficiencies and significant side effects, and this has hampered the development of effective treatment strategies. Diversified nanomaterials can improve drug properties and are considered to be key for the development of improved treatment strategies for atherosclerosis. The pathological mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis is summarized, rationally designed nanoparticle-mediated therapeutic strategies, and potential future therapeutic targets for nanodelivery. The content of this study reveals the potential and challenges of nanoparticle use for the treatment of atherosclerosis and highlights new effective design ideas.