Liraglutide is neurotrophic and neuroprotective in neuronal cultures and mitigates mild traumatic brain injury in mice

Is this enough evidence to create clinical trials in humans? Whom can we ask that question of? There is no one because no one is in charge of stroke. . Because every stroke professional in the world is waiting for SOMEONE ELSE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
Three years ago this was reported;

GLP-1R Agonist Liraglutide Activates Cytoprotective Pathways and Improves Outcomes After Experimental Myocardial Infarction in Mice

yet we are no farther along in this because why?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jnc.13169/abstract 

1. Yazhou Li^1,†,*,
2. Miaad Bader^2,†,
3. Ian Tamargo¹,
4. Vardit Rubovitch²,
5. David Tweedie¹,
6. Chaim G. Pick^2,3,‡ and
7. Nigel H. Greig^1,‡,*

DOI: 10.1111/jnc.13169

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Issue

Journal of Neurochemistry

Accepted Article (Accepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in future.)

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Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a brain dysfunction for which there is no present effective treatment, is often caused by a concussive impact to the head and affects an estimated 1.7 million Americans annually. Our laboratory previously demonstrated that exendin-4, a long-lasting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist, has neuroprotective effects in cellular and animal models of TBI. Here, we demonstrate neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects of a different GLP-1R agonist, liraglutide, in neuronal cultures and a mouse model of mild TBI (mTBI). Liraglutide promoted dose-dependent proliferation in SH-SY5Y cells and in a GLP-1R over-expressing cell line at reduced concentrations. Pretreatment with liraglutide rescued neuronal cells from oxidative stress- and glutamate excitotoxicity-induced cell death. Liraglutide produced neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects similar to those of exendin-4 in vitro. The cAMP/PKA/pCREB pathway appears to play an important role in this neuroprotective activity of liraglutide. Furthermore, our findings in cell culture were well-translated in a weight-drop mTBI mouse model. Post-treatment with a clinically relevant dose of liraglutide for 7 days in mice ameliorated memory impairments caused by mTBI when evaluated 7 and 30 days post trauma. These data cross-validate former studies of exendin-4 and suggest that liraglutide holds therapeutic potential for the treatment of mTBI.