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Leukemia drug could save lives of stroke patients
June 23, 2008The drug tPA is the most effective treatment currently available for stroke patients, but its safety is limited to use within the first three hours following the onset of symptoms. After that, tPA may cause dangerous bleeding in the brain. However, in a study published today in Nature Medicine, investigators from the Stockholm Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and the University of Michigan Medical School show that these problems might be overcome if tPA is combined with the leukemia drug, imatinib (Gleevec®). The results demonstrate that imatinib greatly reduces the risk of tPA-associated bleeding in mice, even when tPA was given as late as five hours after the stroke had begun. The LICR team, in collaboration with the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, is now planning a clinical trial with imatinib in stroke patients.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80 percent of the 15 million strokes that occur each year are caused by the type of blood clots in the brain that tPA can dissolve. Today, less than 3% of patients with this type of stroke receive tPA because the narrow safety window has often passed by the time a stroke patient reaches a hospital and is diagnosed. If the planned clinical trial with stroke patients in Sweden confirms the findings of the present study, there is great promise that imatinib or similar drugs could be administered to stoke patients to increase the therapeutic window of tPA.
The basis for this novel proposal is the key growth factor PDGF-CC, which has now been discovered to control the blood brain barrier (a structure that normally shields the brain from the blood). When tPA acts on PDGF-CC, the blood-brain barrier becomes porous and can start to leak. Imatinib inhibits the detrimental effect of PDGF-CC by binding to its receptor PDGFR alpha, seemingly without hindering tPA's therapeutic effect, which is to break down clots that have lodged in the brain's blood vessels.
"Ten years ago our research group identified the growth factor PDGF-CC, and we are now very excited having unraveled a mechanism in the brain involving this factor", says Professor Ulf Eriksson, who leads the LICR team. "This finding has indeed the potential to revolutionize the treatment of stroke."
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
"Ten years ago our research group identified the growth factor PDGF-CC, and we are now very excited having unraveled a mechanism in the brain involving this factor", says Professor Ulf Eriksson, who leads the LICR team. "This finding has indeed the potential to revolutionize the treatment of stroke."
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Stroke Patient Current Events and Stroke Patient News RSSNew hope for stroke patients
If a stroke patient doesn't get treatment within approximately the first three hours of symptoms, there's not much doctors can do to limit damage to the brain.
Telemedicine leads to better stroke treatment decisions
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center say that their first-of-its-kind study of a telemedicine program which transports stroke specialists via computer desktop or even laptop to the patient's bedside, using highly sophisticated video, audio and Internet technology, could have an immediate and profound impact on the treatment of stroke patients throughout the world.
New 3-D ultrasound could improve stroke diagnosis, care
Using 3-D ultrasound technology they designed, Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness and unevenness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes.
Many Stroke, Heart Attack Patients May Not Benefit from Aspirin
Up to 20 percent of patients taking aspirin to lower the risk of suffering a second cerebrovascular event do not have an antiplatelet response from aspirin, the effect thought to produce the protective effect, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.
Adult brain can change, study confirms
It is well established that a child's brain has a remarkable capacity for change, but controversy continues about the extent to which such plasticity exists in the adult human primary sensory cortex.
Lowering Body Temperature Could Aid Standard Stroke Treatment
University of Cincinnati (UC) scientists have developed a model that could help physicians combine current clot-busting medication with below-normal body temperatures (hypothermia) to improve the treatment of ischemic stroke patients.
Exercise science principles strengthen swallowing rehabilitation
Just thinking about swallowing makes it harder to do. Head and neck cancer, a stroke, brain tumor, brain injury or even a tracheostomy tube and mechanical ventilation needed to sustain life can make it impossible.
New study of hand-brain function offers insight into recovery for stroke survivors
A Queen's study of stroke survivors gives new insight into the stages of recovery of hand muscle control after a stroke, suggesting that patients may benefit from different treatment strategies at different times during the recovery process.
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