Aiming for the heart: targeted delivery of drugs to diseased cardiac tissue.
BACKGROUND
The development of a number of regenerative strategies in recent years for curing heart disease represents a paradigm shift away from conventional approaches which aim to manage heart disease. Effective administration of pharmaceutical agents targeted directly to the diseased tissue is the key to unlocking the potential of regenerative strategies, which could augment current conventional treatments.


OBJECTIVE
The authors review recent advances in targeted drug delivery to diseased cardiac tissue.


METHODS
Various therapeutic methodologies designed to selectively deliver pharmaceutical agents to diseased cardiac tissue are discussed in this review.


CONCLUSIONS
Targeted delivery of survival and engraftment promoting factors to damaged cardiac tissue can be an important strategy, for example, in creating a suitable microenvironment encouraging the engraftment of stem cells. Further progress in this emerging field is contingent on the discovery of new biomarkers that are upregulated in damaged cardiac tissue and can be targeted for selective drug delivery. Once fully realized, breakthroughs in this field will have direct applications in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease through more effective tissue-specific drug delivery and improved imaging modalities.
Scott
Robert C
RC
Temple University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 1947 North 12th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. mkiani@temple.edu
Crabbe
Deborah
D
Krynska
Barbara
B
Ansari
Ramin
R
Kiani
Mohammad F
MF
D000818:Animals; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004337:Drug Carriers; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D014465:Ultrasonics
D002317:Cardiovascular Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers