South Dakota Patent of the Month – January 2021
There are a wide variety of methods for tissue closure following surgery or injury. Sutures, staples, and glues are common methods for initiating tissue bonding but each have drawbacks. Sutures and staples are foreign bodies in the tissue and cause inflammation and can lead to fluid leaks. Glues are limited to skin closures as they would be toxic in the body. Laser tissue welding can damage the surrounding skin or tissue and lead to inflammation or scarring. Internal scarring can prevent functionality – for instance, blocking blood flow and leading to clotting. Alumend, LLC developed a method of using naphthalimide compounds to bond tissue without forein-body components.
Naphthalimide compounds can be activated by certain wavelengths of light while in contact with the target tissues. Once activated, they become an adhesive agent and initiate protein cross-linking of the tissues. This chemical reaction is capable of bonding connective tissue, bones, and other biomaterials. Another method is to link naphthalimide compounds to biomolecules. These naphthalimide-labeled compounds can be activated before contacting the tissues which means they can be used in ‘dark’ conditions. Alumend considers this method particularly beneficial for arterial repair which faces numerous challenges in regular tissue bonding. Arterial repair usually uses a combination of patch and suture tissue bonding and experiences foreign body reactions, scarring, and leaking. Naphthalimide could remove the foreign-body reaction and remove leaking from gaps in patches. Alumend predicts that these compounds could even be used for localized delivery and bonding of drugs and skin care products like sunscreen.
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