Controlled blood coagulation with Nucleic Acid Nanoparticles (NANPs)

Some medical conditions, such as cancer, COVID and sepsis, as well as therapies such as certain cytotoxic oncology drugs increase the risk of thrombosis, also known as undesirable blood clotting. Therefore, patients undergoing therapeutic interventions for these conditions often require anti-coagulants, agents that prevent the blood from clotting. Moreover, certain types of surgery (e.g., coronary bypass) require extracorporeal blood oxygenation, which involves anticoagulants to maintain the blood flow through the heart-lung machine that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lung to allow surgeons address the heart problem. While being efficient at preventing thrombosis, common anticoagulants have significant limitation in that their action is not easily reversed, leading sometimes to complications such as haemorrhage. A novel anticoagulation system utilising nucleic acid nanofibers offers a treatment option when a smooth transition to normal clotting is required after the medical procedure that required anticoagulants.