Researchers have discovered a novel treatment for stroke. It is a drug that can counteract the consequences of a stroke that has been identified, and it is given to the brain by spraying the antibodies via the nose. The HealthSite reports that the experiment was carried out on rats, and the findings were positive.
According to experts, this method can boost the effectiveness of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive approach to stimulating the brain. It has been used therapeutically or in clinical studies to treat neurological diseases, like Parkinson's disease, depression, Alzheimer's disease, addiction, and scientists now believe it can repair stroke-like damage in the brain.
Spraying Antibodies to the Brain
Ischemic strokes often result in the death of oxygen-deprived brain cells, which causes impairments throughout the body, as it happens when an artery in the brain is blocked. Previous research has demonstrated that the brain can mend itself after a stroke, but only to a limited extent.
At least in rats, medicines that counteract the consequences of a stroke may be administered to the brain by spraying them up the nose, New Scientist reports. But getting large drug molecules to the brain is a medical challenge as most of them cannot reach their target in large quantities because of the impenetrable walls of the blood vessels that perfuse the brain.
Through the nose, some drugs may be able to breach this wall and travel up to the nerves responsible to detect smell as they have long fibers that stretch from the nasal passage to the brain.
The team tested nasal delivery of antibodies that blocks a compound in the brain known as Nogo-A, which inhibits the growth of brain cells. The researchers began by simulating the consequences of a stroke in rats by preventing blood supply to certain areas of their brains. This made the animals less adept at reaching through a hole for food pellets, something they could do effortlessly previously.
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Is the Nasal Spray Effective?
The strokes in the mice were all identical, and they all caused the death of brain cells that control the front paws. As per Medical Express, each mouse was assessed on its ability to do a specific task both before and after the stroke. The nasal spray was then provided daily for two weeks, and the mice were examined to determine whether there was any improvement in symptoms.
The success rate of the nasal spray of antibodies after two weeks improved to about 60% of their former ability after four weeks since the injury. Meanwhile, those in the placebo treatment only recorded about 30%.
When they examined the rat brains, they found that the treated rats had generated more new nerve fibers. Martin Schwab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich said that they attained a level of antibodies that is useful in healing a massive stroke lesion that showed the brain has a natural regenerating ability.
Moein Moghimi of Newcastle University in the UK added that any method of delivering medications into the brain would be beneficial. However, he claims that this study does not establish that the antibodies reached the brain via traveling up the nerves because they might have been absorbed from the nose into the circulation, from which minor amounts could have reached the brain.
They discussed the findings of their study, titled "Intranasal delivery of full-length anti-Nogo-A antibody: A potential alternative route for therapeutic antibodies to central nervous system targets," in the journal PNAS.
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