Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) are chronic ailments of the central nervous system that gradually deteriorate the structures and functions of neurons. The etiologies of NDs include genetic factors, aging, infections, starvation, brain trauma, and spinal cord injury, among others. However, it is unclear whether viral infections impact the prognosis of NDs or contribute to their development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViral nanoparticles (VNPs) are self-assembling, adaptable delivery systems for vaccines and other therapeutic agents used in a variety of biomedical applications. The potential of viruses to invade and infect various hosts and cells renders them suitable as potential nanocarriers, possessing distinct functional characteristics, immunogenic properties, and improved biocompatibility and biodegradability. VNPs are frequently produced through precise genetic or chemical engineering, which involves adding diverse sequences or functional payloads to the capsid protein (CP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Control Release
November 2008
Arterial drug concentrations determine local toxicity. As such the emergent safety concerns surrounding drug-eluting stents mandate an investigation of the factors contributing to fluctuations in arterial drug uptake. Drug-eluting stents were implanted into porcine coronary arteries, arterial drug uptake was followed and modeled using 2-dimensional computational drug transport.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMillions of patients worldwide have received drug-eluting stents to reduce their risk for in-stent restenosis. The efficacy and toxicity of these local therapeutics depend upon arterial drug deposition, distribution, and retention. To examine how administered dose and drug release kinetics control arterial drug uptake, a model was created using principles of computational fluid dynamics and transient drug diffusion-convection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The intricacies of stent design, local pharmacology, tissue biology, and rheology preclude an intuitive understanding of drug distribution and deposition from drug-eluting stents (DES).
Methods And Results: A coupled computational fluid dynamics and mass transfer model was applied to predict drug deposition for single and overlapping DES. Drug deposition appeared not only beneath regions of arterial contact with the strut but surprisingly also beneath standing drug pools created by strut disruption of flow.