NIIGATA A research team led by Niigata University has developed a novel method for treating strokes, according to a newly published study.
The team has identified a protein that works to protect the brain from complications related to stroke treatment, such as bleeding and edema.
The discovery can help extend the time limit for treatment, said Takayoshi Shimohata, a 47-year-old associate professor at Niigata Universitys Brain Research Institute.
According to Shimohata, thrombolytic therapy, in which blood clots are dissolved using a drug called a tissue plasminogen activator, has been widely regarded as the most effective way to treat strokes.
But only a small number of patients can benefit from the treatment because it poses a heightened risk of complications, such as bleeding from ruptured blood vessels, when it is administered more than 4 hours after a stroke occurs.
Shimohata and his colleagues said they found that progranulin, a protein that exists in the human body, can protect blood vessels and nerve cells in the brain and suppress their inflammation.
Tests on animals showed that simultaneous administration of the tissue plasminogen activator and progranulin can prevent complications as well as reduce swelling, they said.
If the finding, published in the latest edition of the British journal Brain, is put into practice, treatment by tissue plasminogen activator will become possible up to eight hours from the onset of a stroke, the researchers believe.
With support from a state agency, the team has been conducting joint research with a domestic drugmaker since last year. Five to six years of clinical trials will be needed before the treatment can be made widely available, it said.
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