CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW/UVA Health ) – A nanotechnology-based drug delivery system developed at UVA Health to save patients from repeated surgeries has proved to have unexpectedly long-lasting benefits in lab tests – a promising sign for its potential to help human patients. A UVA Health release says the approach would allow surgeons to apply a paste of nanoparticles containing hydrogel on transplanted veins to prevent the formation of harmful blockages inside the veins. These blockages often force heart and dialysis patients to undergo repeated surgeries; some dialysis patients need seemingly endless procedures on both arms and then a leg or around their collarbone so that they can continue to receive their lifesaving treatment.

While UVA’s innovation, dubbed “Pericelle,” produced encouraging results in early testing, there have been questions about how long the benefits this form of drug delivery could last. Would this quick and easy procedure, performed during the initial vein surgery, continue to protect patients months later? That was the hope, but even the UVA scientists were surprised by their latest results: Not only did Pericelle work at three months – when the applied drug supply ran out – but it continued to work at six months and was still working at nine months.

Click here for the researchers’ published report in the journal Bioactive Materials.
Click here for the entire UVA Health report.