Fighting Myocardial Infraction with Nanoparticles

Heart disease is the number one leading cause of death in the United States and every year about 735,000 Americans will have a myocardial infraction, also known as a heart attack. The high numbers of people that are affected by myocardial infractions has caused for there to be a high demand for cardiac research. Researchers at the University of Bonn have recently made some exciting discovers in myocardial infraction treatments.

            In a heart attack, atherosclerosis, or a build of fats and cholesterols, within the coronary blood vessels prevents the muscles of the heart from getting adequate blood flow and eventually they die. Recent attempts in treating myocardial infractions have been focused on replacing the dead cardiac muscle cells, but an issue have arisen with this treatment. The main complication that must be overcome, is getting the injected replacement cells to stay within the heart muscles. The nature of the heart and the constant pumping and movement of blood thought it prevents the replacement cell from staying in place and taking “root”. The small amount of replacement cells that take root, limits the ability for repair. The team at the University of Bonn, headed by Dr Wilhelm Röll, has recently made a discovery that would overcome the previous complication.

            Dr. Röll and his team have done research in the use of magnetic nanoparticles and have had great success. Their research involves taking replacement muscle cells and loading them with magnetic nanoparticles. These loaded replacement cells are then administered into the area of damaged cardiac cells. A magnet is placed outside the body above the heart, which keeps the injected cells within the magnetic field and thus within the heart where they are needed. They found that having the magnetic field for just a short 10 minutes was sufficient time to allow the cells to take root. In the experiment, 60 percent of the cells treated with the nanoparticle and the magnetic stayed within the heart compared to the 25 percent of non-treated cells that remained in the heart.

            The discoveries made by Dr. Röll and his team show great promise in treating the damaged cells within the heart after a myocardial infraction. Sadly, the new treatment is still being tested in mice models and it will be some time before it is available in clinical settings. This discovery gives hope to the future of heart disease and the treatments used for heart attacks.

Annika Ottersbach, Olga Mykhaylyk, Alexandra Heidsieck, Dietmar Eberbeck, Sarah Rieck, Katrin Zimmermann, Martin Breitbach, Britta Engelbrecht, Tobias Brügmann, Michael Hesse, Armin Welz, Philipp Sasse, Daniela Wenzel, Christian Plank, Bernhard Gleich, Michael Hölzel, Wilhelm Bloch, Alexander Pfeifer, Bernd K. Fleischmann, Wilhelm Roell. Improved heart repair upon myocardial infarction: Combination of magnetic nanoparticles and tailored magnets strongly increases engraftment of myocytes. Biomaterials, 2018; 155: 176 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.11.012