An American biomedical company has achieved promising results in its quest to develop game changing treatments for stroke victims.
ArunA Biomedical found there was ‘improved tissue and functional recovery’ in pigs after a ischemic stroke, on receiving what are called neural stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (NSC EVs). These were the first tests of human NSC EVs ‘in a large animal model representative of the human brain’.
“The study published today is significant because the pig brain is architecturally similar to the human brain. Like the human brain, the pig brain contains more than 60% white matter, the tissue most vulnerable to pathological processes that follow ischemic stroke. This compares to the rodent brain containing approximately 10% white matter. These results represent a significant step in our plan to develop a new, cell-free treatment for stroke, a disease which claimed over 6.2 million lives in 2016 and is the leading cause of long-term disability in the US,” said Steven Stice, chief scientific officer of ArunA Biomedical.
Dr Stice led the study – published in the Stroke journal – with the Regenerative Bioscience Center at the University of Georgia.
It adds to recent developments by researchers to combat the risk and effect of strokes, like the work being done at a Finnish university, reported on these pages last month, to develop a mobile app which alerts smartphone users that they may be at risk.
