The month of June is underway! Next month we will be highlighting Concept Medical' s MagicTouch Sirolimus Drug Coated Balloon catheter here on LinkedIN.

Today we kick off with how sirolimus works. What is sirolimus and how does it differ from paclitaxel?

Sirolimus has been well known for years within interventional cardiology but is still relatively unknown within peripheral vascular interventions. Concept Medical has designed the MagicTouch PTA balloon with sirolimus coating for shunts, PTA and erectile dysfunction. But what exactly is sirolimus?

Sirolimus has an immunity suppressing effect. In addition, sirolimus also has an inhibitory function of the so-called mTOR signaling pathway. This pathway is important in a variety of cellular processes such as cell growth, division and survival.

The major difference from the current standard Drug-Coated-Balloon (DCB), which contains paclitaxel, is in its approach to cell division. Paclitaxel acts mainly in the mitosis phase where sirolimus does so only at the end of cell division. As a result, sirolimus is cytostatic rather than cytotoxic, which paclitaxel is.

Sirolimus is now widely used in study settings with very good results. This will increase the demand for DCB with sirolimus in vascular interventions in the future.