TY - JOUR ID - 2180 TI - Autonomous Drug-Encapsulated Nanoparticles: Towards a Novel Non-Invasive Approach to Prevent Atherosclerosis JO - Iranian Journal of Medical Physics JA - IJMP LA - en SN - AU - Rowhanimanesh, Alireza AU - Akbarzadeh Totonchi, Mohammad Reza AD - Department of Electrical Engineering, Center of Excellence on Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Processing (SCIIP), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. AD - Department of Electrical Engineering, Center of Excellence on Soft Computing and Intelligent Information Processing (SCIIP), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Y1 - 2013 PY - 2013 VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 118 EP - 132 KW - Atherosclerosis KW - Low Density Lipoprotein KW - Nonlinear Control KW - Swarm Control KW - Nanoparticles DO - 10.22038/ijmp.2013.2180 N2 - Introduction This paper proposes the concept of autonomous drug-encapsulated nanoparticle (ADENP) as a novel non-invasive approach to prevent atherosclerosis. ADENP consists of three simple units of sensor, controller (computing), and actuator. The hardware complexity of ADENP is much lower than most of the nanorobots, while the performance is maintained by the synergism in the swarm architecture. Materials and Methods Since high accumulation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) macromolecules within the arterial wall plays a critical role in the initiation and development of atherosclerotic plaques, the task of the swarm of ADENPs is autonomous feedback control of LDL level in the interior of the arterial wall. In this study, we consider two specific types of ADENPs with distinguishing capabilities. The performance of each type is evaluated and compared on a well-known mathematical model of the arterial wall through computer simulation. Results Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can successfully reduce the LDL level to a desired value in the arterial wall of a patient with very high LDL level that is corresponding to the highest rates of cardiovascular disease events. Moreover, it is shown that ADENP is capable of distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy arterial walls to reduce the drug side effects. Conclusion The proposed approach is a promising autonomous non-invasive method to prevent and treat complex diseases such as atherosclerosis. UR - https://ijmp.mums.ac.ir/article_2180.html L1 - https://ijmp.mums.ac.ir/article_2180_381486b81031f4eafd64d724f8883991.pdf ER -