New treatments for brain injury

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Following a stroke, survivors can experience trouble moving, speaking, eating, and other bodily functions, completely stripping them of their independence. Yet, despite the devastating nature of this condition there are only two treatments currently approved to treat stroke. It is vital that a stroke patient is treated as rapidly as possible to minimise this damage to the brain. Currently, the treatments focus on restoring blood supply to the brain. Unfortunately, these treatments require specialist facilities and have a narrow window of time for their use, meaning they are not given to many stroke patients. What is needed is a method to restore and preserve the energy levels in the stroke-affected brain for long enough for patients to receive treatment at specialist stroke units.

In this Medical and Life Sciences Research funded project, Ms. Paulina Michór, working with colleagues at Warwick University will test how a novel treatment that could provide point-of-care treatment for stroke patients works. This treatment directly targets the restoration of energy in the brain by providing essential building blocks of the chemical fuel used by the brain, enabling damaged cells to recover to normal energy levels. We have shown previously that this method can restore the energy content of energy-depleted brain tissue to normal levels, as well as reducing the area of damage caused by stroke in an animal model. Since this method uses very simple compounds that are already in use in humans, our approach has great potential to be used by ambulance crews and other first-responders to preserve brain tissue until patients can receive specialist treatment, thereby reducing the impact of stroke, and indeed possibly traumatic brain injury caused by blows to the head. If we show how this treatment works in the brain, it will open-up this mechanism as a potential avenue for new treatments for brain injury.