Guan creates custom nanoparticles to fight inflammation, fibrosis

Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a heart attack, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and about 300,000 of those do not have surgery afterward to restore blood flow. These patients rely on drugs to reduce inflammation and inhibit scar tissue development, or fibrosis, but delivering these drugs to the heart has been challenging.

Jianjun Guan, a materials scientist in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has an idea that might eliminate, or at least improve, both of those issues. With a four-year $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Guan and his team plan to enclose a set of proteins designed to curb inflammation and a peptide to prevent fibrosis inside cleverly disguised drug-delivering smart nanoparticles. These nanoparticles would be delivered intravenously into the blood, which would take them directly to the heart… Continue reading.