A new type of drug to prevent sudden death

The drug may pave the way

A study conducted by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St.

The study, published in the journal Biomaterials Advances, may lead to a new way

Senior author Christine T.

Each year, about 200,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with abdominal aortic aneurysms, also known as AAA, and most of them are older men

Scientists have known for decades that vascular inflammation can lead to a worsening of AAA, but efforts to treat the disease with immunosuppressive therapy have failed

In this study, the researchers used nanoparticles to deliver anti-inflammatory loads directly to inflamed blood vessels

Co-author Samuel A.

The researchers used nanoparticles to carry so-called small interfering RNA (siRNA), targeting two subunits of NF-kappaB: p50 and p65

"The optimization of the nanoparticles allows us to use a fraction of the previously determined dose of siRNA, which means that we can achieve therapeutic effects at a level that is unlikely to cause adverse reactions," Pham said

Wickline is a principal investigator at the University of Washington and head of Pham's National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Small Business Technology Transfer program, which involves the original nanoparticle technology

"For this funding, we looked at rheumatoid arthritis, not AAA," Pham said

References: Peptide-siRNA nanoparticles targeting NF-κB p50 mitigate experimental abdominal aortic aneurysm progression and rupture" by Huimin Yan, Ying Hua, Antonina Akk, Samuel A.