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Michelle DeVilbiss @ 01:01 PM on 21 Feb, 2013

Nanomedicine is an emerging field of medicine that uses nanotechnology techniques. These techniques integrate disciplines such as chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and engineering for advanced therapy and diagnostics. The article “Emerging Applications of nanomedicine for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases” (Godin, 2010) focuses on the application of nanomedicine in regards to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The field of nanomedicine differs from conventional molecular therapeutics in a sense that it “enables the design of multi-component, multi-tasking, multi-modular agents that can simultaneously and precisely detect and treat disease”. One application is the use of imaging modalities and therapy (in diseases such as atherosclerosis and restenosis) to “identify and characterize the early stages of disease before the development of pathological manifestations”. Another strategy for the treatment and prevention of CVDs is ex-vivo and in-vivo detection of cardiovascular diseases signals. This has the potential to reduce fatalities associated with the diseases. One example is “monitoring thrombotic or hemorrhagic events that could facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of stroke or embolisms”.

Does anyone have any experience working with nanomedicine to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases? How effective are the imaging modalities compared to the ex-vivo and in-vivo detection methods? Where is the future of nanomedicine in regards to cardiovascular diseases going?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016561471000012X