Evaluation of the MiStent sustained sirolimus eluting biodegradable polymer coated stent for the treatment of coronary artery disease: does uniform sustained abluminal drug release result in earlier strut coverage and better safety profile?

INTRODUCTION: Treatment of coronary artery disease has made strides over the last decades. Development of drug eluting stents (DES), coated with a polymer layer and an anti-proliferative drug to reduce neointimal hyperplasia, has reduced the incidence of in-stent-restenosis relative to treatment with bare metal stents. Patients treated with first generation DES more likely suffer from (very) late events which can be cause by the permanent presence of a polymer. Therefore second generation DES with more biocompatible coatings, and third generation DES, with very thin struts coated with biodegradable polymers, were developed. Areas covered: The MiStent SES is one of these third generation DES and is designed to limit the duration of polymer exposure, optimize coronary vessel healing and more precisely and consistently control drug elution to improve safety and clinical outcomes. This review provides a detailed description of the technique behind the MiStent SES, and describes the pre-clinical and clinical trials conducted with this device to date. Expert commentary: Recent clinical trials have shown non-inferiority of very thin strut biodegradable polymer coated DES compared to durable polymer coated DES, whilst maintaining an excellent safety profile. Longer follow-up, to see the real potential benefits of these devices, is mandatory however.

Technical overview on the MiStent coronary stent.

Drug-eluting stents (DES) have dramatically improved the long-term efficacy of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Over the last decade there have been numerous advances in DES platforms, however, all but one currently approved DES in the United States and many of the approved DES worldwide still have 3 common features: a metal stent platform, an anti-proliferative drug, and a permanent polymer. In this context, the polymer is critical to control drug release, but the polymer serves no purpose after the drug is eluted. While designed to be completely biocompatible, synthetic polymers have the potential to illicit an inflammatory response within the vessel including but not limited to delayed healing and hypersensitivity. Adverse vascular reactions to these polymers have been implicated as a cause of very late stent thrombosis, ongoing intimal hyperplasia and late "catch-up" in addition to neoatherosclerosis. To avoid the long-term risks associated with prolonged polymer exposure, DES with bioabsorbable polymers have been developed. The MiStent® Sirolimus-Eluting Absorbable Polymer Coronary Stent System (MiStent SES) (MiCell Technologies, Durham, NC, USA) combines crystalline sirolimus, a rapidly absorbing polylactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) coating and a thin-strut cobalt chromium alloy stent platform (Genius MAGIC® Stent System, EuroCor GmbH, Germany). MiCell's supercritical fluid technology allows a rigorously controlled, solvent-free drug and polymer coating to be applied to a bare-metal stent. This solvent-free application of drug uniquely allows a crystalline form of sirolimus to be used on the MiStent SES potentially providing improved clinical benefits. It avoids the uncontrolled burst of drug seen with other DES, provides uniform drug delivery around and between the stent struts, and allows the anti-inflammatory and anti-restenotic drug (sirolimus) to be present in the tissue through the entire polymer absorption period and for months after the polymer has been absorbed. On the MiStent SES, the PLGA/crystalline sirolimus combination is cleared from the stent within 45-60 days and PLGA is fully absorbed within 90 days. The crystalline form of sirolimus uniquely remains in the tissue and continues to expose the surrounding tissue to therapeutic levels of drug for up to 9 months which is long after the polymer is resorbed.

Serial Evaluation of Vascular Response After Implantation of a New Sirolimus-Eluting Stent With Bioabsorbable Polymer (MISTENT): an optical coherence tomography and histopathological study.

BACKGROUND: Novel vascular scaffolds aim at equipoise between safety and efficacy. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows in-vivo serial assessment of stent-vessel interactions with high resolution and frequent sampling and may complement histology assessment. We investigated the vascular response to a novel absorbable coating sirolimus-eluting stent (AC-SES) by means of serial OCT and histology evaluation in a porcine model. METHODS: One AC-SES and one bare-metal stent (BMS) were implanted in separate coronary arteries of three Yucatan mini-swine. Serial OCT was performed post procedure and at 3-, 28-, 90-, and 180-day follow-up. Normalized optical density (NOD) was used for the assessment of tissue response over time. Histological evaluation was performed at day 180. RESULTS: A total of 6408 stent struts were analyzed. OCT revealed 100% of struts covered at 28 days, and a significant difference in NOD from 3 to 28 days (0.64 ± 0.07 vs 0.71 ± 0.05, respectively; P<.001) in the AC-SES group. Neointimal thickness was 0.14 ± 0.08 mm, 0.17 ± 0.11 mm, and 0.16 ± 0.09 mm in the AC-SES group and 0.18 ± 0.10 mm, 0.14 ± 0.09 mm, and 0.10 ± 0.08 mm in the BMS group, while rates of uncovered struts were 0%, 0%, and 3.1% and 1.4%, 7.8%, and 21.5%, respectively, at 28, 90, and 180 days. Minimal inflammation and a mature endothelialization were demonstrated in both groups by histology. CONCLUSION: OCT serial assessment of vascular response suggested NIH maturation 28 days following AC-SES implantation in pigs. These findings, coupled with histological demonstration of low inflammation scores and complete endothelial coverage as measured at 180 days, suggest a satisfactory healing response to AC-SES.

Enhanced drug delivery capabilities from stents coated with absorbable polymer and crystalline drug.

Current drug eluting stent (DES) technology is not optimized with regard to the pharmacokinetics of drug delivery. A novel, absorbable-coating sirolimus-eluting stent (AC-SES) was evaluated for its capacity to deliver drug more evenly within the intimal area rather than concentrating drug around the stent struts and for its ability to match coating erosion with drug release. The coating consisted of absorbable poly-lactide-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and crystalline sirolimus deposited by a dry-powder electrostatic process. The AC-SES demonstrated enhanced drug stability under simulated use conditions and consistent drug delivery balanced with coating erosion in a porcine coronary implant model. The initial drug burst was eliminated and drug release was sustained after implantation. The coating was absorbed within 90 days. Following implantation into porcine coronary arteries the AC-SES coating is distributed in the surrounding intimal tissue over the course of several weeks. Computational modeling of drug delivery characteristics demonstrates how distributed coating optimizes the load of drug immediately around each stent strut and extends drug delivery between stent struts. The result was a highly efficient arterial uptake of drug with superior performance to a clinical bare metal stent (BMS). Neointimal thickness (0.17±0.07 mm vs. 0.28±0.11 mm) and area percent stenosis (22±9% vs. 35±12%) were significantly reduced (p<0.05) by the AC-SES compared to the BMS 30 days after stent implantation in an overlap configuration in porcine coronary arteries. Inflammation was significantly reduced in the AC-SES compared to the BMS at both 30 and 90 days after implantation. Biocompatible, rapidly absorbable stent coatings enable the matching of drug release with coating erosion and provide for the controlled migration of coating material into tissue to reduce vicissitudes in drug tissue levels, optimizing efficacy and reducing potential toxicity.