Modeling oxygenation and selective delivery of drug carriers post-myocardial infarction

An anatomically realistic mathematical model of oxygen transport in cardiac tissue was developed to help in deciding what angiogenic strategies should be used to rebuild the vasculature post myocardial infarction (MI). Model predictions closely match experimental measurements from a previous study, and can be used to predict distributions of oxygen concentration in normal and infarcted rat hearts. Furthermore, the model can accurately predict tissue oxygen levels in infarcted tissue treated with pro-angiogenic compounds. Immunoliposome (IL) targeting to areas of inflammation after MI could provide the means by which pro-angiogenic compounds can be selectively targeted to the infarcted region. The adhesion of model drug carriers and immunoliposomes coated with antibody to P-selectin was quantified in a MI rat model. Anti-P-selectin coated model drug carriers showed a 140% and 180% increase in adhesion in the boarder zone of the MI 1 and 4 hours post-MI, respectively. Circulating for 24 hrs, radiolabeled anti-P-selectin immunoliposomes showed an 83% and 92% increase in targeting to infarcted myocardium when injected 0 and 4 hrs post-MI, respectively. Targeting to upregulated adhesion molecules on the endothelium provides a promising strategy for selectively delivering compounds to the infarct region of the myocardium using our liposomal based drug delivery vehicle.