2024-01-23 14:05:24
During a stroke, the lack of blood flow to the brain leads to a significant loss of nerve cells. Depending on the extent, this can lead to functional losses such as paralysis, sensorimotor impairments, vision and speech disorders, but also pain and depression.
New hope for those affected by stroke
There are currently no medications that improve or restore functions after a stroke. Around 60 percent of stroke patients suffer from loss of somatosensory functions such as touch and position.
An international study by a research team of scientists from the Swedish University of Lund in collaboration with the Italian University of Rome La Sapeinza and the US Washington University in St. Louis shows promising results in mice and rats. The researchers treated the rodents with a class of substances that inhibit the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR5). This is a receptor that regulates communication in the brain’s nerve cell network.
“Rodents treated with the GluR5 inhibitor regained their somatosensory functions,” explains study leader Tadeusz Wieloch, senior professor of neurobiology at Lund University: “The communication between nerve cells in large parts of the brain changes after a stroke, and we show that it can be partially restored through treatment.”
Substance can be used up to 10 days after stroke
“At the same time, the rodents regain lost somatosensory functions, something that approximately 60 percent of all stroke patients experience today. The most remarkable result is that the treatment began just a few days after the stroke,” continued Wieloch.
The treatment can start relatively late. It was only two days after the stroke, i.e. at the time when the damage had developed and the functional impairment was most noticeable, that the researchers began treating the rodents that had the greatest functional impairment.
“A temporary treatment effect was seen after just 30 minutes, but lasting recovery requires several weeks of treatment. A certain improvement in function was observed even when treatment began ten days after a stroke,” emphasizes Wieloch.
Extent of brain damage unchanged
However, the improvement in sensorimotor functions was not accompanied by a reduction in the extent of brain damage. A real healing in the narrower sense does not take place with the new therapy.
Wieloch explains it this way: “Impaired functions after a stroke are due to the loss of cells, but also to reduced activity in large parts of the connectome in the non-damaged brain. The receptor mGluR5 is apparently an important factor for the reduced activity in the connectome, which is prevented by the inhibitor and thus restores the lost brain function.”
The results also showed that sensorimotor functions continued to improve when treatment was combined with rehabilitation training. Even though further studies are required before the therapy can be used on humans, Wiesloch is confident:
“Combined with rehabilitation training, this could be a new promising treatment. However, further studies are needed. The study was carried out on mice and rats and of course needs to be repeated on humans. This should be possible because several mGluR5 inhibitors have been studied in humans for the treatment of neurological diseases other than stroke and have been shown to be tolerable in humans.”
The study was published in the scientific journal Brain.
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