PLGA from PolySciTech used to create budesonide-loaded particles for controlled release applications from novel cardiovascular stent design

 

A good general rule of thumb for the delicate and sensitive internal processes of the human body is that living tissue does not like foreign objects to be inside of it. Often medical implants (stents, artificial joints, etc.) trigger reactions from the surrounding tissue simply due to their presence which can lead to inflammation and, in severe cases, failure of the implant and potentially severe patient morbidity or mortality. Budesonide is a steroidal anti-inflammatory which can be helpful in preventing the human immune system from attacking biomedical implants. Recently, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School used PLGA from PolySciTech (www.polyscitech.com) to create budesonide loaded particles and applied these to a custom-designed stent. This research holds promise to reduce inflammation, in-stent restenosis, and other complications which occur with cardiovascular stent emplacement. Read more: Babaee, Sahab, Yichao Shi, Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Siddartha Tamang, Kaitlyn Hess, Joy E. Collins, Keiko Ishida et al. "Kirigami-inspired stents for sustained local delivery of therapeutics." Nature Materials (2021): 1-8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-021-01031-1

“Abstract: Implantable drug depots have the capacity to locally meet therapeutic requirements by maximizing local drug efficacy and minimizing potential systemic side effects. Tubular organs including the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract and vasculature all manifest with endoluminal disease. The anatomic distribution of localized drug delivery for these organs using existing therapeutic modalities is limited. Application of local depots in a circumferential and extended longitudinal fashion could transform our capacity to offer effective treatment across a range of conditions. Here we report the development and application of a kirigami-based stent platform to achieve this. The stents comprise a stretchable snake-skin-inspired kirigami shell integrated with a fluidically driven linear soft actuator. They have the capacity to deposit drug depots circumferentially and longitudinally in the tubular mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract across millimetre to multi-centimetre length scales, as well as in the vasculature and large airways. We characterize the mechanics of kirigami stents for injection, and their capacity to engage tissue in a controlled manner and deposit degradable microparticles loaded with therapeutics by evaluating these systems ex vivo and in vivo in swine. We anticipate such systems could be applied for a range of endoluminal diseases by simplifying dosing regimens while maximizing drug on-target effects through the sustained release of therapeutics and minimizing systemic side effects.”