Background

Coronary stents suffer from two major and common complications; Thrombosis and Restenosis.

Stent thrombosis is a blood clot that occurs following stent implantation. This is linked with insufficient endothelial cells (EC) migration and proliferation at tissue injury site. This clot can block the free flow of blood through an artery and may cause a heart attack or even death. Restenosis is caused by unwanted proliferation of underlying vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) causing too much tissue growth within the treated portion of the artery. This can cause the artery to become narrow or blocked again.

Drug-eluting stents are used to help prevent this problem, where stents are coated with medicine to stop excess tissue growth. The majority of Drug eluting stents (DES) only reduce VSMC proliferation, while directly causing poor endothelialization through the undifferentiated inhibition of endothelial cells as well. This can result in high risk of late thrombosis, which may cost the patient his life.

Different strategies need to be investigated in order to reach optimum duration and conditions for endothelial healing for the enhancement of drug eluting stents.

Technology Overview

Vertically oriented, Titanium-based nanoarchitectures were fabricated to offer novel functional surface for cardiac implants (stents) that is self-grown from the proposed stent substrate. This system can enhance endothelial proliferation as well as act as a drug reservoir in order to hinder VSMC proliferation.

By manipulating certain parameters in the anodization process (mainly electrolyte composition, voltage and time) a nano-coating surface with the exact same percentage and composition as the core/substrate beneath it was introduced. This is considered challenging since it’s difficult to successfully grow Nanotubes from a tertiary alloy (Titanium + Niobium + Tantalum).

The stent substrate (the material from which the stent base material is made) and the coating material both contain the same percentage and components of a tertiary alloy that has the required mechanical properties and high biocompatibility. Having the same material, the bonds between the surface and the substrate are expected to be highly enhanced compared to polymeric coating counterparts available at the market. By having this unique composition the integrity of the stent coating is reinforced, producing a stent that is fully biologically compatible with functional surface.

Benefits

The system offers a nano-architectured surface layer, self-grown from substrate material which would accordingly:

Reinforce the integrity of the stent coating and eliminate a step from the manufacturing process.
Produce a stent that is fully biocompatible with functional surface that can both act as drug reservoir and enhance endothelialization avoiding late thrombosis ( and ).

Applications

This technology is to be used as enhanced drug eluting stents surface to improve endothelial proliferation as well as act as a drug reservoir to hinder Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell (VSMC) proliferation.

Opportunity

Available for exclusive and non-exclusive licensing
Exclusive/non-exclusive evaluation for defined period (set up for options).
Collaborative/supportive research

Titanium-nanoarchitectures for Enhanced Drug Eluting Stents

Patents

IP Status

Seeking