Nanotechnology Used as Sustainable Alternative for Coronary Artery Disease: An Advanced Approach

Nanomedicine and nano delivery systems are a relatively new but quickly emerging field in which tiny materials are used as diagnostic tools or to administer therapeutic medicines to specific targets in a controlled manner. Nanotechnology has numerous applications in the treatment of chronic human diseases, such as the site-specific and target-oriented delivery of precise medicines. There have been several notable applications of nanomedicine (chemotherapeutic agents, biological agents, immunotherapeutic agents, and so on) in the treatment of various diseases in recent years. Nanotechnology has the potential to provide a new complementary approach to treating coronary artery disease (CAD), which is now one of the leading causes of death in the Western world. In 2017, it was responsible for more than 17.3 million deaths per year, a figure that is expected to rise to more than 23.6 million by 2030. It can provide a variety of delivery systems for cargoes such as drugs and genes that can address many problems within the arteries. To improve the performance of existing stents, nanotechnology offers various nanomaterial coatings, as well as controlled-release nanocarriers, to prevent in-stent restenosis.

It has the potential to improve drug efficiency, improve local and systematic delivery to atherosclerotic plaques, and reduce the inflammatory or angiogenic response following intravascular intervention. Nanocarriers have the potential to deliver imaging and diagnostic agents to precise targets. This requires close collaboration among researchers, engineers, biomedical engineers, nanotechnologists, and clinicians. As technology and evidence advance, we will soon enter an era in which established treatment modalities may be called into question and eventually replaced by nanotherapeutics.