Peptides used to protect stroke victims from brain damage

Totally worthless article. It doesn't reference the name of the peptide or the research name. Bruno Meloni doesn't show up with this in google scholar.  What a waste of print.
This other news source does identify the peptides;
Peptides May Reduce Brain Injury After Stroke
Using in vitro neuronal cell culture stroke models we soon discovered that poly-arginine and arginine-rich peptides on their own possessed potent neuroprotective properties.  Furthermore, we showed that as the length of the poly-arginine peptide increased so did the peptides neuroprotective properties.  Excitingly, the poly-arginine peptides were even more potent than the ”neuroprotective peptides” we had been working with and peptides developed by other overseas researchers.
We have now confirmed using a laboratory animal stroke model that poly-arginine peptides could reduce brain damage when administered up to 1-hour after the stroke. The news source that is worthless:
Peptides used to protect stroke victims from brain damage

West Australian researchers have discovered a way to use peptides to protect stroke victims from brain damage, and say the breakthrough may reduce the risk of sustaining a serious disability from a stroke, especially for people living in remote Australia.

Professor David Blacker, the medical director of the West Australian Neuroscience Research Institute, said it was an important development in stroke research.
"In the rats that were given experimental peptides the volume of stroke damage was substantially smaller," he said.
"If we can apply that to human models, the hope would be that critical bits of the brain will be less affected."
The discovery is a big deal, especially for the 50,000 people who will have a stroke this year.
"It's devastating and there have been surveys that reveal older people will fear surviving a stroke with a substantial disability; they will fear that more than actually dying," Professor Blacker said.
Professor Blacker, who is also a neurologist at Perth's Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, said most researchers had given up trying to find such a treatment.
"At these stroke conferences just recently, people have been standing and applauding the speakers ... because we're so used to trials that have had no result or been negative," he said.

Audio: WA researchers say a breakthrough in stroke treatments could protect people from brain injury (AM)

It is hoped that giving victims peptides within an hour of a stroke will buy them more time before brain damage starts.
"It's all well and good if you're in a major metro centre and you collapse in the middle of the day and get brought to a hospital where you've got the team that can do the techniques to remove the clot," Professor Blacker said.
"But it's no good if you're rural and remote [in] Western Australia or Queensland or the Northern Territory where you're hours and hours away.
"If we could actually; the patient has a stroke and gets some of these drugs that slow down the clotting cascade, it'll buy you some extra time.
"Then the patient could be transported for more definitive treatment."

Research 'a game changer', second breakthrough this month

Professor Bruno Meloni led the research team and said the discovery was a potential game-changer.
"It could [mean] from a person who is paralysed to a person who has no paralysis, so it will definitely improve their standard of living and their outcomes," he said.
This is the second major breakthrough in the field this month.
Last week, Melbourne researchers revealed details of a new treatment that almost doubles stroke victims' chances of walking out of hospital without a disability.
It involves identifying which parts of the brain are salvageable after a stroke before removing the blood clot and giving the patient clot-busting drugs.
Professor Meloni said the two discoveries complement each other.
"The research that came out of Melbourne showed that if you can improve blood flow to the brain, this can limit brain injury and improve patient outcomes," he said.
"However, despite that treatment, the brain can still be vulnerable to the effects of stroke, and our peptides particularly target vulnerable tissue that may eventually become damage.
"So the peptides aim to further inhibit or suppress the brain damage that occurs after stroke."
This trial was done on rats and it is expected to be some years before the peptides are tested on humans in a clinical trial.
But Professor Blacker said time is always of the essence when it comes to stroke research.
"One in six people in the world will have a stroke," he said.
"Moving our studies on, moving the development of new drugs along quickly, is imperative."
The team also hopes to secure funding to explore how the peptides could help people suffering from other conditions, including cardiac arrest and spinal injury.