Intra-arterial thrombolysis, administered within six hours of symptoms onset, has been shown in a randomized, prospective, multicenter trial and in several nonrandomized case series to be beneficial in acute ischemic stroke caused by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery or its major divisions. Benefit has been reported in a relatively small number of nonrandomized case series beyond the six-...

Comment. Bevacizumab in this patient was shown to be well tolerated without any signs of toxic effects; in particular, no inflammation, degeneration, or necrosis was observed. Furthermore, the results show that bevacizumab effectively controlled the neovascularization in zone 1, stage 2 ROP. Vascular endothelial growth factor is a survival factor for retinal neurons and a critical neuroprotecta...

Virtually all pathogenic stimuli activate Müller cells. Reactive Müller cells exert protective and toxic effects on photoreceptors and neurons. They contribute to oxidative stress and glutamate toxicity due to malfunctions of glutamate uptake and glutathione synthesis. Downregulation of potassium conductance disrupts transcellular potassium and water transport, resulting in neuronal hyperexcita...

The use of stem cells for reparative medicine was first proposed more than three decades ago. Hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow, peripheral blood and human umbilical cord blood (CB) have gained major use for treatment of hematological indications. CB, however, is also a source of cells capable of differentiating into various non-hematopoietic cell types, including neural cells. Several ...

Nitric oxide (NO) derived from the inducible isoform of NO synthase (iNOS) is an inflammatory product implicated both in secondary damage and in recovery from brain injury. To address the role of iNOS in experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI), we used 2 paradigms in 2 species. In a model of controlled cortical impact (CCI) with secondary hypoxemia, rats were treated with vehicle or with 1 of...

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability and treatment options are limited. A promising approach to accelerate the development of new therapeutics is the use of high-throughput screening of chemical libraries. Using a cell-based high-throughput oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) model, we evaluated 1,200 small molecules for repurposed application in stroke therapy. Isoxsuprine hydrochlor...

Tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) is a serine proteinase found not only in the intravascular space but also in a well-defined sub-set of neurons in the brain. tPA is rapidly released from neurons after either exposure to hypoxia or hypoglycemia in vitro, or the induction of cerebral ischemia in vivo. It has been proposed that tPA has a neurotoxic effect in the ischemic brain. However, rec...

Ifenprodil is a noncompetitive antagonist of NMDA receptors highly selective for the NMDA receptor 2B (NR2B) subunit. It is widely used as a pharmacological tool to discriminate subpopulations of NMDA receptors, and derivatives are currently being developed as candidate neuroprotectants. Despite numerous studies on the mechanism of action of ifenprodil on NMDA receptors, the structural determin...