Scientists at the CIC biomaGUNE research centre are developing a project aimed at finding efficacious treatment for combating cerebral ischemia, a pathology which is the third cause of death and, at the same time, the main cause of disablement in developed countries.
About 70% of patients suffering heart attack in developed countries are over 65 years of age and taking into account the ongoing increase in life expectancy, it is anticipated that the numbers affected by this pathology will increase considerably.
The project was financed by the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government and with a duration of three years (2011-2013). The aim was to study the activities of certain neurotransmission systems during the process of brain ischemia — carried out in mice in the laboratory — and their relation both with the physiopathological processes underlying cerebral ischemia, such as the recovery of long-term brain function.
To this end, the CIC biomaGUNE Molecular Imaging Unit will initiate in vivo studies using state-of-the-art technological equipment such as PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in an experimental mouse brain ischemia model. These innovative imaging techniques enable the monitoring of the animal during the development of the pathology, contributing thereby to information of great biological value for the understanding of the process of cerebral ischemia.
These non-invasive imaging techniques have enabled contributing information about the process underlying cerebral ischemia. Nonetheless, the role of neurotransmission systems using molecular imaging techniques in experimental brain stroke scenarios has been little explored.
This present study can help in explaining the role of certain neurotransmission systems In experimental brain stroke scenarios, its possible relation with changes in cerebral blood perfusion and metabolic activity, both in the brain regions affected by the stroke as well as regions remote from this. Thus, “the correct understanding of the processes involved in brain function recovery can contribute decisively to the development of new courses of treatment as well as to the generation of new PET imaging biomarkers aimed at evaluating the cerebral plasticity presented in the process of brain function recovery”, according to Dr. Llop, principal researcher at the CIC biomaGUNE Molecular Imaging Unit. All these findings can, in the last analysis, “accelerate and increase the recovery process of patients with this pathology”.
The process
Brain malfunction during the cerebral ischemia process may be triggered by a number of physiopathological mechanisms associated with a brain stroke. Despite advances in understanding this physiopathology of cerebral ischemia, the therapeutic options for combating the various harmful processes are very few indeed. To date, only one medicine has been approved as effective clinical treatment for cerebral ischemia and this functions as an activator for recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA), and still the only tool to combat the effects of brain stroke.
In consequence, one of the challenges for the research is finding effective treatment capable of conserving and/or recovering the brain function of the patients.
Some of the mechanisms suggested to encourage functional recovery include neovascularisation, cerebral plasticity and functional reorganisation through the recruitment of new cerebral regions and/or neuromodulation. In the opinion of Dr. Abraham Martín, project leader, “it is critical to investigate the physiopathology, the local cerebral flow, the metabolism and the function of the tissues - days, weeks or even months after the onset of the ischemia, as well as other mechanisms not yet studied in the cerebral ischemia scenario, such as systems of cerebral neurotransmission.
English translation by: WORDLAN wordlan2012@gmail.com; 615740862.
