Washington [US], September 8 : The University of Tennessee Health Science Centre is conducting research to find a novel technique to treat ischemic stroke, which is the top cause of mortality in people globally.
The study is supported by a translational grant of USD1,155,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The lead investigators are Jianxiong Jiang, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Jiawang Liu, PhD, director of the Medicinal Chemistry centre at UTHSC. Thaddeus S. Nowak, PhD, professor of neurology, contributes expertise in stroke models to the project.
Ischemic strokes account for about 87 per cent of acute stroke cases. Current ischemic stroke treatments, consisting of intravenous thrombolytic therapy and mechanical thrombectomy, have potential risks and must be administered in a short window of time to be effective, which limits patient eligibility. Additionally, those who receive treatment and survive can be left with permanent disabilities.
“The current treatment options for ischemic stroke are very limited, and so there's an urgent need to develop a new treatment for this condition,” Dr. Jiang said. “Even the patients who survive can have long-term disabilities because of the neuronal injury caused by the stroke.”
The researchers will work to develop novel drug-like antagonists for the prostaglandin receptor EP2, an emerging therapeutic target for brain ischemia-promoted neuroinflammation. Previous work led by Lexiao Li, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jiang’s lab, validated the feasibility of pharmacologically targeting EP2 in animal models. The team believes this safer and more effective treatment could reduce inflammation and provide protection for neurons after an ischemic stroke. The potential new treatment would have a wider therapeutic window, so it would apply to more patients, while improving behavioral outcomes and reducing long-term disabilities.
“I have a family history of this disease. My father and my grandmother both had ischemic stroke before they died, so that was kind of motivation for me to develop a new treatment for this disease,” Dr. Jiang said.
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