A study conducted by the Institut de Neurociències UAB (INc-UAB) demonstrated the advantages of vorinostat after stroke in animal models. A drug used to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in humans has been shown to alleviate brain damage and help rebuild brain tissue.

Ischemic stroke is the second leading reason for death worldwide and occurs when blood flow cannot reach the brain because of an obstruction. For about a protracted time, the brain doesn’t receive oxygen, which causes damage and impaired function. Hypertension is probably the most common modifiable risk factor for stroke and is related to a poorer recovery period.

Currently, there is just one pharmacological treatment to alleviate the results of stroke, nevertheless it just isn’t effective in all patients and is related to some significant negative effects. Now, researchers from the Institut de Neurociències UAB (INc-UAB) have managed to reveal that vorinostat (suberoylanilidohydroxamic acid) has great potential within the treatment of brain damage resulting from strokes.

This drug, used to treat one variety of cutaneous lymphoma, inhibits histone deacetylases – enzymes that regulate gene expression by modifying the extent of acetylation of a bunch of proteins called histones.

In an article published within the magazine Biomedicine and pharmacotherapythe research group demonstrated in a model of stroke in hypertensive rats, very just like the clinical situation, how the usage of the drug helps the animals improve neurological deficits, reduce brain damage and moderate the inflammatory response, amongst other things.

We observed that a single dose of the drug administered in the course of the reperfusion period prevented many aspects related to stroke pathology. This opens the door to research on the sort of treatment beyond the preclinical phase.”

Andrea Díaz, first creator of the article

Moreover, researchers were in a position to show that the treatment protected not only the brain but in addition the encompassing vessels, even several hours after the stroke occurred.

“Given the urgent clinical need for drugs to treat acute ischemic stroke and the undeniable fact that vorinostat is approved to be used in humans, these findings should encourage further preclinical studies to guage, for instance, its effects in female and older animals , in animal models with other common comorbidities of stroke, similar to diabetes, its long-term effects, etc. This may pave the way in which for the right design of future clinical trials to check the effectiveness and safety of the drug in patients who’ve suffered a stroke,” concludes study coordinator Francesc Jiménez -Altayó, researcher on the Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology at UAB and the Area of ​​Cardiovascular Diseases of the Center for Biomedical Research Networks (CIBERCV).