Scientists create ‘biogel’ given through an IV that heals the damage of a heart attack as it happens
A new biogel injected intravenously has healed the damage of a heart attack from the inside out – and it starts working the moment it’s administered to the patient.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego removed large particles from hydrogel and diluted it with water to make an injectable substance.
Once injected, the treatment binds to cells, sealing the openings and speeding up the healing of the blood vessels.
The innovation has been tested in rodents and pigs, successfully repairing heart damage and reducing inflammation — and now researchers aim to start human trials within one to two years.
The team believes it could treat a patient “immediately when they have a heart attack to try and save some of the tissue and promote regeneration,” says Karen Christman, a bioengineer at the University of California, San Diego.
A new biogel appears to heal the damage of a heart attack as the event happens and heals tissue from within
The team has been developing the biomaterial for more than ten years.
Christman and her colleagues created a hydrogel in 2012 when it was tested on pigs and found that the liquid formed a fibrous and porous matrix.
“It then allows the body’s own cells to get in there and help prevent this negative remodeling process that happens after a heart attack and thus prevent heart failure,” she said in a 2012 interview.
There are at least 785,000 new cases of heart attacks in the US each year, and a treatment to repair damage to heart tissue has yet to be developed.
Dr. Ryan R. Reeves, a physician in the department of cardiovascular medicine at UC San Diego Health, said in a rack: ‘Coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure remain the most burdensome public health problems facing our society today.
“As an interventional cardiologist, who treats patients with coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure on a daily basis, I would like to have a different therapy to improve patient outcomes and reduce debilitating symptoms.”
The team chose hydrogel because it is compatible with blood injections. Hydrogel is used in wound dressings.
It is developed using hydrogel, which is used in wound dressings. Scientists separated the large particles and added water to make it flow through the IV
The team believes it could treat a patient “immediately when they have a heart attack to try and save some of the tissue and promote regeneration,” says Karen Christman, a bioengineer at the University of California, San Diego.
However, they had to remove large particles, leaving only nano-sized, to make the treatment intravenous.
The material was dialyzed and sterile filtered before being freeze-dried.
And sterile water was added to form the biomaterial that could be administered into the patient.
When tested on rodents, scientists expected the biomaterial to pass through blood vessels and into tissue, as gaps form between endothelial cells in blood vessels after a heart attack.
Instead, the treatment binds to cells, sealing the openings and speeding up the healing of the blood vessels, reducing inflammation.
Further experiments in rats showed that the biomaterial particles can also be used to treat traumatic brain injury and pulmonary arterial hypertension.
With the successful results, the team plans to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a human study, meaning testing could begin in a year or two.
