Professor Zhao Qiang's team at the College of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology of Nankai University has recently made new advances in the treatment of myocardial infarction. The team proposed a new strategy of local microenvironment-responsive nitric oxide release for the treatment of myocardial infarction, and designed and prepared a novel nitrate functionalized myocardial patch. The material can take advantage of the hypoxic and acidic microenvironment in the infarcted region to produce NO in vivo, which can effectively exert NO myocardial protection and promote the repair and regeneration of the infarcted myocardium. The research results have been published online in Nature Communications under the title Nitrate-functionalized patch confers cardioprotection and improves heart repair after myocardial infarction via local nitric oxide delivery (2021, 12: 4501, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24804-3).

The research team prepared functional myocardial patches for myocardial infarction treatment using electrostatic spinning technology. The local ischemic-hypoxic microenvironment can accelerate nitric oxide production when myocardial infarction occurs. The ability of nitrate materials to release nitric oxide in vivo is well documented by analytical characterization such as near-infrared in vivo imaging, chemiluminescence, and electron paramagnetic resonance. Applying this patching material in a rat myocardial infarction model, local delivery of nitric oxide reduced myocardial ischemic injury, decreased apoptosis, promoted revascularization, and improved cardiac remodeling. The cardioprotective and therapeutic effects of this nitrate-functionalized myocardial patch were further demonstrated in a large animal (porcine) infarction model, and the results of this study fully proved the promising clinical translation potential of the patch.

Active Mechanism of Functionalized Cardiac Tonic Patch

Compared with small-molecule nitrate drugs, the polymeric material cannot cross cell membranes, so it can be converted to NO in situ in myocardial tissue and perform better cardioprotective functions. It can also effectively solve the adverse effects such as reflex tachycardia and hypotension caused by systemic delivery of small-molecule nitrate drugs.

Professor Zhao Qiang from the College of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology at Nankai University and Dr. Yin Meng, Chief Physician from Shanghai Children's Medical Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine are the co-corresponding authors of this paper; Zhu Dashuai, a Ph.D. student from Nankai University, Hou Jingli, an associate professor from the School of Pharmacy in Tianjin Medical University, and Qian Meng, a Ph.D. student from Nankai University are the co-first authors. Professor Che Yongzhe of Nankai University School of Medicine and Dr. Pan Yanjun of Shanghai Children's Medical Center has provided guidance on animal models.

Link to the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24804-3

Reported by Lin Chunhong, edited by Wei Chengjin