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Revisiting Transcranial Light Stimulation as a Stroke Therapeutic—Hurdles and Opportunities

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Abstract

Near-infrared laser therapy, a special form of transcranial light therapy, has been tested as an acute stroke therapy in three large clinical trials. While the NEST trials failed to show the efficacy of light therapy in human stroke patients, there are many lingering questions and lessons that can be learned. In this review, we summarize the putative mechanism of light stimulation in the setting of stroke, highlight barriers, and challenges during the translational process, and evaluate light stimulation parameters, dosages and safety issues, choice of outcomes, effect size, and patient selection criteria. In the end, we propose potential future opportunities with transcranial light stimulation as a cerebroprotective or restorative tool for future stroke treatment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Husam Mikati for his generous assistance with this manuscript.

Funding

Dr. Liu would like to acknowledge grant fund RF1MH114285, “Transcranial Infrared Brain Stimulation: A Novel Tool for Noninvasive Neuromodulation.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Wuwei Feng, Alexis Domeracki, Christine Park, Shreyansh Shah, Pratik Y. Chhatbar, Swaroop Pawar, Cherylee Chang & Estate Sokhadze

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Po-Chun Hsu & Eric Richardson

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    David Hasan

  4. Department Department of Neurology, LSU Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA

    Quanguang Zhang

  5. Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA

    Hanli Liu

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  1. Wuwei Feng
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Correspondence to Wuwei Feng.

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Feng, W., Domeracki, A., Park, C. et al. Revisiting Transcranial Light Stimulation as a Stroke Therapeutic—Hurdles and Opportunities. Transl. Stroke Res. 14, 854–862 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12975-022-01103-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12975-022-01103-7

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