Researchers Use Nanoparticles To Deliver Treatment For Brain, Spinal Cord Injuries

Researchers from Purdue University in the U.S. have developed a technique for targeting and repairing injured brain and spinal cord cells using polymer-coated silica nanoparticles. The researchers had previously demonstrated that the polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG), when mixed with saline and injected, could be used to treat rats with brain injuries and dogs with spinal cord injuries by targeting and sealing damaged cells and restoring cell functions.

Researcher Richard Borgens explained: "Composition and concentration limited how much PEG we could get to the injury. If you change the composition to make the PEG more potent, it produces ethylene glycol, the poison in antifreeze. If you change the concentration of PEG in another way, the solution becomes syrupy and difficult to inject.” To resolve these limitations, the researchers coated silica nanoparticles with PEG and used them to treat guinea pig spinal cord injuries. The researchers report that the treated spinal cord cells demonstrated improved physiological functioning. The researchers also tested PEG-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with hydralazine, an antihypertension drug, to treat secondary damage to cells. Borgens explained: "When cells are injured, they produce natural toxins.

Acrolein is the most poisonous of these toxins. It's an industrial hazard for which hydralazine is an antidote." In tests, the researchers found that the hydralazine-loaded nanoparticles restored disrupted cell function caused by acrolein. The researchers are now testing the new treatments on rats with brain injuries. The article can be viewed online at the link below.

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www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=30865

10/6/2008
Source: Nanotechnology Now