用于对抗心脏病的纳米技术

Now from the Boston Museum of Science, Sci-tech today, on NECN.

We are talking about a breakthrough in the battle against heart disease. Harvard and MIT scientists have developed a new technology that requires no surgery: it’s called Nanoburrs. And Dr. Brindha Muniappan joins us live from the Museum of Science in Boston and tells us about it.
Thanks for being here.

Thanks Beth. It’s nice to be here.

So explain to us a little bit about what a Nanoburr is?

Sure. So a nanoburr is a nanoparticle. So very very tiny particle we can’t see with our naked eyes on such a small scale. But these particles have been designed to sort of be like burrs you might find out in nature. So if you are out on a walk for example, maybe you’ve already encountered some of these burrs stuck to your socks or maybe to your pet. These nanoparticles were designed just like these burrs to stick but to a specific place in our body to damaged heart vessels.

And how are they able to do that?

Well, the team of researchers that you mentioned earlier designed the nanoparticles to have a very special protein coding the outside of them. And that protein really just wants to bind to another protein that’s only exposed when heart vessels are damaged.
And so, I have got a little demonstration here. If you imagine that this tube is like a blood vessel, the clear area is a normal tissue and the white area is a site of damage. We would inject the nanoburr and it will bind only to the site of damage. You can do that with multiple nanoburrs. There they stick only to the site of damage. And that’s the high technology here.

So once the nanoburr attaches to that tissue, how does it help improve the condition of the heart?

Well, the inside of the nanoburr contains medicine. So once the burr is bond to the site of damage, it can very slowly release medicine to treat the site of damage. And that’s another improvement of this particular technology: the ability to very slowly release the medicine over 12-14 days.

So how is this improvement over conventional treatments for blocked or damaged arteries?

Well, in one way, as I mentioned, there is a slow release of drug. But also, these nanoburrs don’t have to be surgically implanted, they can
just be injected. And there is a little bit more of an advantage, there is a possibility of using this technology for treating other diseases, including cancer or severe inflammation.

So a team of scientists at Harvard and MIT developed the technology. Where is it and it’s availability to patients?

Well, this technology unfortunately is still in very early stages. Scientists have done some initial tests in rats in their laboratory.They are hoping to do a bit more tests in animals. Maybe within about five years, they might be able to do some small clinical tests in human patients.

So it sounds like the idea of this isn’t just to treat a heart that has already undergone something like a heart attack but more to prevent it from happening?

Well, it certainly might be used before a heart attack, but it could also be used in conjunction with current treatments like stents that are currently used to keep open a previously blocked artery. So it’s possible that there are multiple uses for this technology.

Alright, Dr. Brindha Muniappan, thanks so much for joining us.
Thank you, Beth.

Words:stent(人工植入动脉等内的)支撑管支架