Researchers Develop Novel Therapy For Busting Blood Clots With Laser  

Kolkata: Indian researchers have developed a novel therapy to bust blood clots using laser, which they say can be combined with low concentrations of traditional drugs to reduce life-threatening complications and effectively treat cardiovascular diseases and blood clot-related disorders.

Based on the principle of photothermal therapy, the technique harnessed heat generated by exposing gold nanorods (GNR) to near-infrared (NIR) laser. It specifically targeted blood clots and produced heat locally to chip away the obstruction.

The researchers deployed mice as a test bed for their reasoning. The study involved scientists Nitesh Singh, Anand Varma, Ashish Verma, Babu N. Maurya and is published in the journal 'Nano Research'.

The currently available therapy for busting blood clots is medication with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), streptokinase or urokinase. It is however, fraught with bleeding complications, pointed out Dash.

But the new method circumvents the limitations. It is specific and enables usage of lower doses of the traditional drug.

What intrigued the scientists even more, was the synergism between the two techniques.

This study has been funded by ICMR, DBT and DST. To take it forward, the team intends to target clots in non-human primate model. A patent has already been filed for this study.

--IANS