Nanomedicine Approaches for Advanced Diagnosis and Treatment of Atherosclerosis and Related Ischemic Diseases

• Published in: Advanced healthcare materials 2020-08, Vol.9 (16), p.e2000336-n/a
• Main Authors: Hu, Bin, Boakye‐Yiadom, Kofi Oti, Yu, Wei, Yuan, Zi‐Wei, Ho, William, Xu, Xiaoyang, Zhang, Xue‐Qing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arteriosclerosis; Atherosclerosis; Atherosclerosis - drug therapy; Atherosclerosis - therapy; Biomarkers; Cardiovascular diseases; Diagnosis; drug delivery; Drug Delivery Systems; Health services; Humans; Ischemia; myocardial infarction; Nanomaterials; Nanomedicine; nanomedicines; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - therapeutic use; nanosensors; Nanotechnology; noninvasive imaging; Tissue engineering
• ISSN: 2192-2640; 2192-2659
• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202000336

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain one of the major causes of mortality worldwide. In response to this and other worldwide health epidemics, nanomedicine has emerged as a rapidly evolving discipline that involves the development of innovative nanomaterials and nanotechnologies and their applications in therapy and diagnosis. Nanomedicine presents unique advantages over conventional medicines due to the superior properties intrinsic to nanoscopic therapies. Once used mainly for cancer therapies, recently, tremendous progress has been made in nanomedicine that has led to an overall improvement in the treatment and diagnosis of CVDs. This review elucidates the pathophysiology and potential targets of atherosclerosis and associated ischemic diseases. It may be fruitful to pursue future work in the nanomedicine‐mediated treatment of CVDs based on these targets. A comprehensive overview is then provided featuring the latest preclinical and clinical outcomes in cardiovascular imaging, biomarker detection, tissue engineering, and nanoscale delivery, with specific emphasis on nanoparticles, nanostructured scaffolds, and nanosensors. Finally, the challenges and opportunities regarding the future development and clinical translation of nanomedicine in related fields are discussed. Overall, this review aims to provide a deep and thorough understanding of the design, application, and future development of nanomedicine for atherosclerosis and related ischemic diseases. A schematic representation of the applications of nanomedicine in the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis and related ischemic heart diseases is given. Many applications, such as drug delivery, non‐invasive cardiovascular imaging, cardiac tissue engineering, and cardiac biomarker detection have been realized using a variety of nanotechnology‐based approaches, including nanoparticles, nanostructured scaffolds, and nanosensors.