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Neuroprotective agents for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke

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Abstract

Neuroprotective treatments are therapies designed to interrupt the cellular, biochemical, and metabolic elaboration of injury during or following exposure to ischemia; they encompass a rapidly expanding array of pharmacologic interventions. Various classes of neuroprotective agents have reached phase III efficacy trials in focal ischemic stroke, but none has proven effective, despite successful preceding animal studies. This notwithstanding, recent favorable results of hypothermia in human cardiac arrest trials have validated the general concept of neuroprotection. In addition, the promise of neuroprotective therapy for focal acute ischemic stroke has been renewed by innovations in strategies of preclinical drug development and clinical trial design that rectify past defects, including trial testing of combination therapies rather than single agents and novel approaches to accelerating time to initiation of experimental treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stroke Center and Department of Neurology, University of California at Los Angeles, 710 Westwood Plaza, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bruce Ovbiagele MD, Chelsea S. Kidwell MD, Sidney Starkman MD & Jeffrey L. Saver MD

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  1. Bruce Ovbiagele MD
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  2. Chelsea S. Kidwell MD
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  3. Sidney Starkman MD
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  4. Jeffrey L. Saver MD
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Ovbiagele, B., Kidwell, C.S., Starkman, S. et al. Neuroprotective agents for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 3, 9–20 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-003-0031-z

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