Stroke

Abstract

The most common type of stroke is ischaemic stroke whereby a blood vessel within the brain is occluded resulting in ischaemic injury to surrounding brain tissue. Loss of blood flow results in energy failure within cells leading to cell death through metabolic acidosis, ionic imbalance, excitotoxicity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Clinically, treatments for ischaemic stroke aim to restore blood flow in order to salvage compromised brain tissue, known as the ischaemic penumbra, and reduce the size of the irreversibly damaged infarct core. The restoration of blood flow, however, can result in further tissue damage through excess ROS production and immune response, known as reperfusion injury. Despite numerous preclinical and clinical trials, currently there are no neuroprotective therapeutics to target this ischaemia-reperfusion injury, but with significant service reorganisation and an extended therapeutic window with thrombectomy procedures, hope for such approaches has been renewed.