NeuroSigma Partners With UCLA to Develop Thin-Film Nitinol Stents for Endovascular Applications

July 18, 2011—NeuroSigma, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA) announced the formation of a majority-owned subsidiary, NSVascular, Inc., and the signing of an exclusive license with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) covering its medical applications of thin-film nitinol (TFN) technology. NSVascular will focus on developing and commercializing TFN-covered stents for endovascular applications, with its first two applications being flow-diverting stents for intracranial aneurysms and stents for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD).

A multidisciplinary team composed of researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science in collaboration with physicians from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has been engaged in the development and the in vitro/in vivo testing of TFN-covered intracranial aneurysm and PAD stents. The medical members of the team are Fernando Vinuela, MD; Daniel Levi, MD; David Rigberg, MD; and Colin Kealey, MD. The engineering members of the team are Greg Carman, PhD; Youngjae Chun, PhD; and K.P. Mohanchandra, PhD.

Regarding the intracranial aneurysm flow-diverting stent, Dr. Vinuela commented, “Preclinical in vivo testing has shown a remarkable 100% aneurysm occlusion rate within minutes of treatment, an achievement unmatched by competing flow-diverting technologies. Furthermore, our TFN-covered flow-diverting stent keeps the flexibility of the delivery system, allowing safer distal intracranial navigation and stenting of a larger number of aneurysms.”

NeuroSigma stated that in June, the company entered into a contract with UCLA to fund the development of prototype TFN-covered stents for use in upcoming human trials. The license with UCLA also includes the use of TFN-covered stents for the treatment of PAD.

Since 2009, under a National Institutes of Health Challenge Grant, UCLA has been conducting in vivo preclinical trials to show that its TFN-covered stents may eventually be used for treating PAD by remaining patent even in vessels as small as 3 mm. A surface treatment of UCLA's TFN film provides super-hydrophilic properties, greatly reducing the adherence of platelets, the company stated.

NeuroSigma advised that NSVascular's TFN-covered stents are investigational devices and are limited at this time by United States law for investigational preclinical use only.