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Novartis AG’s efficient leukemia drug Gleevec or imatinib may
also be beneficial for stroke patients, researchers from the Ludwig Institute
for Cancer Research along with researchers from the University of Michigan
Medical School discovered.
Current treatment for stroke patients involves use of tissue
plasminogen activator (tPA), which works by dissolving clots reducing potential
brain damage associated with stroke. However, the drug causes dangerous
bleeding in the brain and three hours after stroke its brain-saving power fades
away.
For the study, the researchers induced strokes in lab mice
and an hour later gave some of them a dose of Gleevec. They found that mice
given the drug had 33 percent less leakage. Also, they had 34 percent less
damage to the brain 72 hours later.
Then the researchers tested Gleevec as a pre-treatment
before giving tPA to protect against bleeding in the brain. They measured
levels of the blood protein hemoglobin in the brain to test for bleeding and
discovered that the mice given Gleevec had 50 percent less hemoglobin than
those not given the drug.
Researcher Daniel Lawrence, PhD, Professor of cardiovascular
medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School released a statement
saying the findings “may have immediate clinical relevance, and could be
applied to find new treatments that will benefit stroke patients,” WebMD
reports.
Ulf Eriksson, professor of molecular biology at the
Karolinska Institute, one of the leaders of the research said a first human
trial, involving 60 people, will soon begin in Sweden and it will be done by
physicians at the Karolinska Institute Hospital in Stockholm. Results of this
trial should be available within one year. These results will be decisive in
planning other human trials.
The findings of the study were published in the June 22
online edition of Nature Medicine.
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