At this microscopic level, quantum mechanics take place and are in effect, resulting in behaviors that would seem quite strange compared to what humans see with the naked eye (regular matter).
[2] The other approach would potentially use minuscule nanoparticles that would travel through the body and find dying heart tissue.
It takes an enormous amount of special care and work to develop the cells so that they beat in sync with one another ("Popular Science").
There have been several successful examples of this with the use of a "stem-cell- based heart patch developed by Duke University researchers," ("Popular Science").
These materials are good at organizing the cells into functioning tissues; however they act as insulators and are poor conductors of electricity, which is a major problem especially in the heart ("Nature Nanotechnology").
Scientists and researchers found a way for these stem cell patches (also known as tissue scaffolds) to be conductive and therefore become exponentially[citation needed] more effective ("Nature Nanotechnology").
[2] Another way that nanotechnology will potentially be used to help fix damaged heart tissues is through the use of guided nanoparticle "missiles".
[2] These nanoparticles can cling to and attach to artery walls and secrete medicine at a slow rate ("MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology").
The only downside to this is that the existing delivery approaches are invasive, requiring either a direct injection into the heart, catheter procedures, or surgical implants.
[3] They are an acid-sensitive vehicle of drug delivery, specifically designed for targeting the environments of tumors, phagosomes, and inflammatory tissue.
[3] In such acidic environments, these nanoparticles undergo accelerated hydrolysis into low molecular weight hydrophilic compounds, consequently releasing their therapeutic contents at a faster rate.
[5][6] Nox2 and NADPH oxidase combine to act as a major source of cardiac superoxide production, which in excess can lead to myocyte hypertrophy, apoptosis, fibrosis, and increased matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression.
[5] In a mouse-model study by Somasuntharam et al. 2013, polyketal nanoparticles were used as a delivery vehicle for siRNA to target and inhibit Nox2 in the infarcted heart.
[7] Polyketal nanoparticles have also been used in the infarcted mouse heart to prevent ischemia-reperfusion injury caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS).
One of the key advantages of polyketal use is that they do not exacerbate the inflammatory response, even when administered at concentrations exceeding therapeutic limits.
[10] Additionally, intramuscular injection of polyketals into the leg of rats shows no significant increases in inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1ß, TNF-α and IL-12.