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A research team has been working for more than a decade to identify ways to reduce brain injury during stroke. Two key pieces of their research recently have revealed that the future of stroke treatment may lie in the form of supplementation, either with prophylactic use of a form of vitamin E or administration of oxygen during a stroke.
"We've focused this research on identifying simple therapeutic strategies that could easily translate into clinical practice at little to no additional cost," said team member Savita Khanna, PhD, of Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus. Colleague Cameron Rink, PhD also is a part of the research team. Both are assistant professors of surgery in the College of Medicine.
Each year, there are about 800,000 strokes, the third leading cause of death in the United States.
In 2008 Dr. Khanna was awarded a pilot grant from the Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) for her research involving the role of glutamate in brain injury. She discovered that oxygen supplementation during a stroke chemically converts glutamate -- normally toxic to neurons -- into a neuroprotective. Additionally, the team determined that the timing of oxygen supplementation was critical. The protective benefit occurred only when oxygen was introduced before the use of clot-busting drugs (Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, February 2010).
Dr. Rink, also supported by CCTS funding, discovered that the preventive use of a form of vitamin E called tocotrienol reduces stroke-induced brain damage in multiple ways. Tocotrienol appears to enhance the natural ability of the body to use other blood vessels in the brain to bypass a clot, reducing the amount of cell damage around the area of blockage. Further, it may reduce the chances of a repeat stroke, which happens in about a fourth of all people with stroke (Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, online, June 2011).
"This is one of the first studies to provide evidence that a safe nutrient -- a vitamin -- can alter microRNA biology to produce a favorable disease outcome," said Dr. Rink.
The team has been working in partnership with the Ohio Supercomputer Center to create detailed images of brain activity during a stroke, providing researchers with an extraordinary window into the pathophysiology of ischemia and the real-time impact of treatments. Both scientists are moving forward with their research, with the ultimate goal of testing the therapeutic strategies in humans.
When treatment is initiated during the first six hours of the onset of stroke, it can save lives and improve the outcome of stroke and a patient's quality of life.
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