In a recent study, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, researchers from Michigan State University have developed a new imaging technique that can help to identify the risk of strokes and heart attacks before they trigger.
“We shine light into an artery where we’ve delivered certain types of particles that can absorb that light,” said Bryan Smith, an associate professor in Michigan State University’s College of Engineering.
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“As a product of the release of that energy, they can literally shout back at us in ways that we can detect and use to create 3D images.”
To be clear, the sound signal isn’t audible to human ears, but an ultrasound transducer can easily capture it. This technique, thanks to Smith and his colleagues, can now be used to image atherosclerotic plaques, which are fatty clumps that accumulate in arteries and can cause strokes and heart attacks.
The researchers demonstrated the new technique in mice as a first step toward developing it for human use.
“The power of our new technique is in its selectivity,” said Smith, who is the director of the Translational NanoImmunoEngineering Lab located at MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, or IQ.
“There are certainly other methods to image plaques, but what distinguishes this strategy is that it’s cellular,” Smith said. “We’re specifically looking at the cells — called macrophages and monocytes — that are most responsible for making a plaque vulnerable in the first place.”
Although it is difficult to prove which plaque caused a patient’s stroke or heart attack, Smith believes that vulnerable plaques are the most dangerous. Inflammatory plaques can burst and block blood vessels.
Vulnerable plaques contain immune cells, including macrophages and monocytes, as well as fatty deposits. Smith and his colleagues created nanoparticles, which are tiny carbon tubules that naturally seek out these cells.
The particles are injected into mice to look for immune cells that form plaques. Then they can laser the arteries. If a plaque is present, the particles absorb light and emit sound. The acoustic signal is then used to locate and visualize the plaque.
“If you look at a normal blood vessel versus one with a plaque, there’re a lot more macrophages and monocytes in the one with the plaque,” Smith said. “And our method is really looking at the monocytes and macrophages. Virtually no other cell type takes up the nanoparticles.”
According to Smith, the concept of combining light and sound, known as the photoacoustic effect, dates all the way back to Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1800s. Nonetheless, it required the development of critical technologies such as lasers and ultrasounds to progress from an idea to a medical diagnostic. The technique is maturing, with the Food and Drug Administration earlier this year approving a photoacoustic imaging machine for cancer detection in women.
Through Smith and his team’s nanoparticle innovations, doctors will be able to image arterial plaques precisely and noninvasively in the future. Researchers from Stanford and Emory universities collaborated with Smith on the project.
“This exciting progress in nanomedicine was only possible because of our multi-disciplinary team of experts,” said Eliver Ghosn, a collaborator on the project and an assistant professor at the Emory University School of Medicine and its Lowance Center for Human Immunology.
“Currently, there is no effective way to accurately locate and treat vulnerable plaques before they lead to a heart attack or stroke,” Ghosn said. “We hope our studies will help change that.”
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Smith’s lab has also demonstrated that their nanoparticles can be loaded with a drug used to treat plaques. The team will now investigate how these particles can be used to aid in imaging and therapeutic delivery.
“So you might ask, can you connect those ideas, develop a combination of a therapy and a diagnostic? I think the answer is absolutely yes,” Smith said. “There is a lot of potential in that realm. It’s in the pipeline.”
Image Credit: Getty