Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, claiming roughly 18 million lives each year. Now, a new approach that might one day be used in conjunction with coronary artery bypass surgeries involves a spray-on technology using customized nanoparticles of one of the world’s most precious metals offers tremendous therapeutic potential and could eventually help save many lives.

Cutting-edge research by researchers at the University of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) has led to the development of a new technology combining nanogold and peptides that can restore both heart function and electrical conductivity. Their research suggests that a spritz of super-tiny particles of gold and peptides on a damaged heart could potentially provide minimally invasive, on-the-spot repair. The therapy tested by the researchers – which was sprayed on the hearts of lab mice – used very low concentrations of peptide-modified particles of gold created in the laboratory. From the nozzle of a miniaturized spraying apparatus, the material can be evenly painted on the surface of a heart within a few seconds.

Gold nanoparticles have been shown to have some unusual properties and are highly chemically reactive. For years, researchers have been employing gold nanoparticles - so tiny they are undetectable by the human eye - in such a wide range of technologies that it’s become an area of intense research interest. In this case, the custom-made nanogold modified with peptides - a short chain of amino acids - was sprayed on the hearts of lab mice. The research found that the spray-on therapy not only resulted in an increase in cardiac function and heart electrical conductivity but that there was no off-target organ infiltration by the tiny gold particles.

According to the researcher, not only does the data suggest that the therapeutic action of the spray-on nanotherapeutic is highly effective, but its application is far simpler than other regenerative approaches for treating an infarcted heart. At first, the observed improvement of cardiac function and electrical signal propagation in the hearts of tested mice was hard for the team to believe. But repeated experiments delivered the same positive results. To validate the exciting findings in mice, the team is now seeking to adapt this technology to minimally invasive procedures that will expedite testing in large animal models, such as rabbits and pigs.

“That’s the beauty of this approach. You spray, then you wait a couple of weeks, and the animals are doing just fine compared to the controls,” said Dr. Emilio Alarcon of the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. 

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