Brain stroke is a life-threatening condition that occurs when part of your brain doesn’t have enough blood flow. According to the Global Stroke Factsheet released in 2022, lifetime risk of developing a stroke has increased by 50% over the last 17 years and now 1 in 4 people is estimated to have a stroke in their lifetime.
Studies suggest that currently, the stroke incidence in India is much higher than in Western countries. A stroke can lead to lasting brain damage, long-term disability, or even death.
Now a team of scientists has demonstrated in mice that nasal drops containing a particular molecule can help in recovering from the damaging biological consequences of a stroke.
The scientists are hopeful that the treatment could eventually be used on humans. It is noteworthy that the treatment regime isn’t implemented immediately rather it is initiated seven days after the attack.
According to the researchers, the key molecule in the drops is the complement peptide (a chain of amino acids) C3a. Studies suggest that this molecule plays an important role in the body’s immune system, as well as in the development and plasticity of the brain.
“With this method, there’s no need to race against the clock. If the treatment is used in clinical practice, all stroke patients could receive it, even those who arrive at the hospital too late for thrombolysis or thrombectomy. Those who have remaining disability after the clot is removed could improve with this treatment too,” neuroimmunologist Marcela Pekna from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden said in a statement.
The researchers also emphasised that the delay is deliberate. The team also revealed that if the drops are given too early, it can increase the number of inflammatory cells in the brain.
While conducting the study, the scientists induced an artificial ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke there is, in mice. After a week, the researchers found the nasal drops proved to help mice recover motor function faster and more completely as compared to the placebo group.
Meanwhile, MRI scans revealed that the peptide helped to increase the number of connections between nerve cells in the brains of the mice.
“Our ambition is to develop the method to make it usable in clinical practice, but to get there, and especially to be able to carry out the necessary clinical trials, we need to team up with a partner in the pharmaceutical industry,” Pekna said in a statement.
The research has been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.