Obstructions in blood vessels lead to a force called shear stress, attracting platelets that form blood clots. In shear-activated nanotherapeutics, a bundle of tiny drug-coated particles travel together until they reach the obstruction. At this point, the shear stress causes the bundle to break apart and attack clots, Businessweek reported.
The study has been done in mice, but is years away from testing in humans -- and the scientists plan to improve some of the chemistry involved, said Donald Ingber, a professor of vascular biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston and an author of the study about shear-activated nanotherapeutics.
