New biomaterial that repairs heart attack-related tissue damage
According to a study, a new biomaterial that can be injected intravenously has been tested and proven effective in treating tissue damage caused by heart attacks in both rodent and large animal models.
The biomaterial reduces tissue inflammation while also encouraging cell and tissue repair. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego demonstrated in a rodent model that the biomaterial could benefit patients suffering from traumatic brain injury and pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The biomaterial enables treating damaged tissue from the inside out, according to Karen Christman, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California San Diego and the team’s lead researcher.
Within one to two years, a study on the biomaterial’s safety and effectiveness in human subjects could begin, added Christman. The team, which consists of bioengineers and doctors, presented its findings in the December 2022 issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.
According to the researchers, there has yet to be an established treatment for repairing the resulting damage to cardiac tissue. Scar tissue forms after a heart attack, which reduces muscle function and can lead to congestive heart failure.
Previously, Christman’s team created a hydrogel made from the natural scaffolding of cardiac muscle tissue, also known as the extracellular matrix (ECM), that can be injected into damaged heart muscle tissue via a catheter. In damaged areas of the heart, the gel forms a scaffold, encouraging new cell growth and repair.
The results of a successful phase 1 human clinical trial were announced. However, because it must be injected directly into the heart muscle, it can only be used a week or more after a heart attack; using it sooner risked causing damage due to the needle-based injection procedure.
The team aimed to create a treatment that could be given immediately following a heart attack. This meant creating a biomaterial that could be injected intravenously or infused into a blood vessel in the heart alongside other treatments such as angioplasty or a stent.
Because the new biomaterial is infused or injected intravenously, it is evenly distributed throughout damaged tissue. In contrast, hydrogel injected through a catheter remains concentrated and does not spread.
The new biomaterial was tested on a rodent model of a heart attack. They expected the material to pass through the blood vessels and into the tissue because gaps form between endothelial cells in blood vessels after a heart attack. The biomaterial, on the other hand, binds to those cells, closing the gaps and accelerating blood vessel healing, reducing inflammation. The biomaterial was also tested in a porcine model of heart attack, yielding similar results.
Christman and a startup she cofounded, Ventrix Bio, Inc, will seek FDA approval to conduct a human study of the new biomaterial’s applications for heart conditions. This means that human clinical trials will begin within the next year or two. Meanwhile, Martin Spang, the paper’s first author, believes that the ability to treat other difficult-to-reach organs and tissues will broaden the field of biomaterials/tissue engineering into the treatment of new diseases.
Source: UC San Diego- https://today.ucsd.edu/story/this-groundbreaking-biomaterial-heals-tissues-from-the-inside-out
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