Exosomes will help with a stroke
Stem cells will help restore the brain after a stroke
Yulia Vorobyova, Vesti
Every year, about 15 million people around the world suffer from stroke. Of these, more than 6 million people die, in other cases, a long and difficult rehabilitation follows, since with an acute violation of cerebral circulation, motor, speech and some other functions deteriorate.
As for the brain, its recovery is due to neuroplasticity: throughout our lives, new connections are created between healthy neurons and new information transmission chains are formed.
However, it also happens that the brain is not capable of complete self-healing. And in this case, stem cells can come to his aid, scientists from the University of Georgia (Stem-cell based stroke treatment repairs brain tissue) said.
The new treatment method involves the use of extracellular vesicles, or exosomes, which are tiny bubbles with a diameter of 30-100 nanometers released into the intercellular space by cells of various tissues and organs. In this case, we are talking about exosomes of stem cells.
Exosomes are able to overcome any obstacles and barriers. Therefore, they can carry and deliver valuable cargo to damaged tissues – therapeutic drugs that accelerate regeneration, the authors explain.
First, the researchers grew two types of cell cultures from pluripotent stem cells – mesenchymal and neural stem cells. Their exosomes were loaded with medication and injected into "elderly" 18-month-old mice who had suffered a stroke. This treatment is called AB126.
Experiments have shown that in the second case (with neural stem cells) the effect was much better.
Exosomes (red dots) are absorbed by neurons
(their bodies are highlighted in green, their cores are highlighted in blue) – VM.
After the introduction of AB126, the researchers scanned the rodents' brains using magnetic resonance imaging to measure the degree of atrophy. The results showed that the treatment reduced brain damage to the animals by 35% compared to the control group, and also reduced the loss of brain tissue due to dying by 50%.
In addition, a few days after the stroke, the mice improved motor functions – this was confirmed by a number of tests. Other tests have shown an improvement in cognitive functions, in particular, the formation of episodic memory has improved.
Encouraged by these results, the researchers intend to begin the first clinical trials of a new treatment method in 2019.
We should add that a startup called ArunA Biomedical is engaged in the production of the drug AB126. Based on the new method, specialists intend to further develop ways to treat epilepsy, as well as brain and spinal cord injuries.
By the way, the use of vesicles loaded with medicine is a promising area of medicine of the future. The storage of such drugs does not require special equipment, and even an unskilled medic can cope with the treatment. Vesicles can deliver precisely calculated amounts of medication, that is, they are suitable for personalized treatment.
A scientific article on the results of the study was published in the medical publication Translational Stroke Research.
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