Anti-infection drug may also help prevent stroke damage

WASHINGTON -- Scientists working with mice have found that a compound used to fight severe blood infections may be useful in preventing stroke damage.

Activated protein C was found to reduce the likelihood that brain cells would self-destruct after a stroke, the researchers report in today's online issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Strokes occur when the blood supply is cut off to part of the brain, by a blood clot for example. Some cells die right away; others are damaged and self-destruct later in a process called apoptosis.

In mice that had strokes, some 65 percent of the cells that would have died after the stroke survived when the mice was treated with the protein, according to the lead researcher, Dr. Berislav Zlokovic of the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.

The protein also is the active ingredient in a drug approved for human use in the treatment of sepsis, a blood infection that can be deadly. In that case it acts by reducing blood clotting and inflammation.

In the case of a stroke victim, the protein decreases the cellular signals that persuade brain cells to kill themselves after a stroke and boosts signals that persuade the cells to survive, according to Zlokovic and co-lead author John H. Griffin of Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

Some of the research was done in collaboration with Socratech Laboratories, a Rochester company founded by Zlokovic.

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Nature Medicine: http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine