Eluting combination drugs from stents

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the leading causes of death across the globe. Pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is lead by the progression of atherosclerotic lacerations in coronary arteries. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using balloon angioplasty was introduced in 1979 and was majorly used in the treatment of these lesions. Introduction of bare metal stents (BMS) has revolutionized stenting procedures overcoming elastic recoil and reducing restenosis commonly associated with balloon angioplasty, but follow up studies have shown 20-30% prevalence of in-stent restenosis (ISR), this led to the development of drug eluting stents (DES). But long-term follow up studies have shown increased liability of stent thrombosis. Boosting the development of safer and effective DES expounding for therapies like biodegradable polymer based DES, polymer free DES, bioresorbable DES and combination DES to collectively reduce neointimal hyperplasia and promote endothelial healing. In dual-DES development, a combination employing an anti-restenotic agent (for preventing VSMC's proliferation), which is released for the first few weeks, and then the second drug a pro-healing agent (promoting re-endothelialization) released after a month would be ideal. Growing understanding in the areas of polymer therapeutics, nanoscale surface modifications and gene therapy would assist in the delivery of multiple drugs, which would further help in the design of promising therapeutic strategies for the treatment of CAD using stent based therapies. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.