And to make this even better you could use xenon gas in the bubbles.
Study Finds Plasmin—Delivered Through A Bubble—More Effective Than tPA In Busting Clots
A new study from the University of
Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine has found that, when delivered via
ultrasound, the natural enzyme plasmin is more effective at dissolving
stroke-causing clots than the standard of care, recombinant tissue
plasminogen activator (rt-PA).
The novel delivery method involved trapping plasmin
into bubble-like liposomes, delivering them to the clot intravenously
and bursting it via ultrasound. That method is necessary, says UC
associate professor of emergency medicine George "Chip” Shaw III, MD,
PhD, because plasmin cannot be delivered through traditional methods.
Intravenous delivery of rt-PA is designed to solve that problem by
catalyzing the conversion of existing plasminogen inside the body to
plasmin, which in turn degrades blood clots.
"Plasmin is the enzyme that actually chews up the fibrin in
clots,” says Shaw. "The problem is you can only give plasmin
inter-arterially, which has safety risks and takes longer to deliver. IV
therapy is always easier and quicker, but if you give plasmin
intravenously, the body inhibits it immediately. If you can encapsulate
it, it doesn’t get inhibited and you can target it to the clot.”
In their in-vitro study, Shaw and researchers Madhuvathi
Kandadai, PhD, and Jason Meunier, PhD, enclosed plasmin and a gas bubble
inside a liposome. They then delivered the liposome to a clot in an
in-vitro lab clot model and dissolved it using ultrasound waves, thus
delivering the plasmin enzyme to the clot. After 30 minutes, clots
treated with plasmin showed significantly greater breakdown than clots
treated with rt-PA.
They worked with colleague Christy Holland, PhD, professor in
UC’s cardiovascular diseases division, to develop the technique. As
director of the Image-guided Ultrasound Therapeutics Laboratories at UC, Holland has studied the use of liposomes and ultrasound to deliver drugs in a less invasive, more targeted fashion.
The standard of care for acute ischemic stroke is intravenous
delivery of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved rt-PA within
three hours of stroke onset. Ischemic stroke is the most common type of
stroke, accounting for about 87 percent of all stroke cases.
More at link.
No comments:
Post a Comment