Canadian researchers have found that injections of a neuroprotective agent called NA-1, which disrupts the action of one of the proteins implicated in stroke
appears to be safe for use in humans and had some effect in reducing damage to brain tissue in the study population.
The study, published in the journal Lancet, reported that the scientists recorded significantly fewer lesions in the group of patients who were given the drug compared to the control.
A release from the journal quotes lead author Professor Michael Hill of the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada, as saying, "Safe drugs to provide tissue neuroprotection defined as salvage of brain tissue by enhancing its resilience to the restricted blood flow that patients experience during these procedures is a major unmet need in stroke treatment, and translation from animal studies to humans has been markedly unsuccessful so far.
Our research, which builds on existing animal studies, suggests that intravenous infusion of NA-1 reduces tissue damage in patients who suffer a small stroke after an operation to repair a brain aneurysm, and further research is now needed to investigate the efficacy of neuroprotection in larger clinical trials."*
In a linked Comment in the journal, Dr Markku Kaste, at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland, wrote "Because of limited resources in many low-income and middle-income countries, most patients with stroke will not have access to stroke unit care, although such care reduces mortality and chronic institutional care. This holds true even more for thrombolysis in ischaemic stroke. Therefore, this underlines the need for safe and effective neuroprotective drugs that can be given at a low service level. However, such drugs should first be assessed in large, well-designed and well-executed randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trials. Only after such trials will we know whether NA-1 or one of the other drugs which have shown comparable effects is the long-awaited holy grail for the treatment of patients with ischemic stroke. The door is now reopening for new neuroprotection trials in stroke."
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Stroke: Drug May Protect Brain