http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 072111.phpScientists discover potential stroke treatment that may extend time to prevent brain damage
STANFORD, Calif. — A naturally occurring substance shrank the size of stroke-induced lesions in the brains of experimental mice — even when administered as much as 12 hours after the event, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown. The substance, alpha-B-crystallin, acts as a brake on the immune system, lowering levels of inflammatory molecules whose actions are responsible for substantial brain damage above and beyond that caused by the initial oxygen deprivation of a stroke.
The only currently approved drug for stroke — tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA — dissolves clots that keep oxygenated blood from reaching brain tissue. To be effective, tPA must be administered within about 4.5 hours after the stroke. But patients' brains must first be scanned to rule out the possibility that the stroke was caused by bleeding, which tPA would exacerbate, rather than by blockage.
Moreover, tPA does nothing to counter the stroke's insidious inflammatory aftershock: a flood of noxious chemicals secreted by angry immune cells that rush in to the affected area, causing significant further damage.
"The brain doesn't roll over and play dead when it's under attack," said Lawrence Steinman, MD, the other senior author of the new study, who is the George A. Zimmermann Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and Pediatrics as well as chair of Stanford's interdepartmental program in immunology.
In an earlier study, published in Nature in 2007, Steinman and his colleagues found that the presence of alpha-B-crystallin could help reduce the severity of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis, a chronic, debilitating autoimmune disease of the brain. Other studies published this year by his group have shown that alpha-B-crystallin limits the damage caused by blood-supply cutoffs to heart tissue and the retina.
It seemed logical to see if this protein could mitigate the effects of a stroke. "We made a jump from its relevance in inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis," Steinberg said. "To my knowledge, nobody had looked at concentrations of alpha-B-crystallin after a stroke, either in people or in an experimental animal model before."
was this such a large leap, really?
cheer