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Researchers look into new stroke treatments

Friday 21st December 2012
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Researchers in the US are looking in to different approaches of treating people that have had a stroke.

The attack is considered one of the deadliest within the UK and claims thousands of lives every year, with doctors and those in biomedical science jobs aiming to develop more effective treatment for patients.

The team at the University of Georgia took a different approach to finding a way which will help people recover after they have had a stroke and looked into mechanisms responsible for regenerating blood vessels in the brain. The researchers highlighted candesartan to aid the process after having a stroke in a bid to aid their recovery.

Officials noted that the medication is normally prescribed to help lower a person's blood pressure, but the researchers noted that it could be highly beneficial to help patients recover from a stroke.

Ahmed Alhusban, a doctoral candidate in the College of Pharmacy and co-author of the study, explained that candesartan is adept at identifying key factors within the brain that would aid a recovery process.

"The really unique thing we found is that candesartan can increase the secretion of brain derived neurotrophic factor, and the effect is separate from the blood pressure lowering effect. This will support a new area for treatments of stroke and other brain injury." Mr Alhusban explained.

Candesartan is not normally used in this case due to the fact that it aids the lowering of a person's blood pressure which can lead to decreasing the amount of much-needed oxygen within a person's system.

However, the University of Georgia team believes that it does have the ability promote growth within cells situated in the brain derived by the neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.

Susan Fagan, University of Georgia College of Pharmacy assistant dean for clinical programs, said: "BDNF is a key player in learning and memory. A reduction of BDNF in the brain has been associated with Alzheimer's disease and depression, so increasing this growth factor with a common medication is exciting."

written by Angela NewburyADNFCR-1780-ID-801511661-ADNFCR

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