Novel Therapeutic Intra-Arterial Pharmacotherapy Administration for Treatment of Acute Ischemic Stroke

Overview

Stroke is the 5th leading cause of death in Kentucky and the United States as well as the leading cause of long-term disability in several countries. Despite its vast implications, there is currently no treatment for stroke that can bring a patient’s condition back to his/her pre-stroke function. The purpose of my experiment was to investigate whether verapamil, a calcium channel blocker, would decrease the infarcted region of the brain and improve functional outcome when administered intra-arterially (IA) to the ipsilateral side of a stroked mouse brain. I worked with verapamil-treated (treated group) and saline-treated (control group) C57/Bl6 mice brain tissue. I conducted three experiments with the tissue to determined the effects of verapamil on neuroprotection. First, I used immunohistochemistry to stain the tissue for NeuN, a marker for mature neurons. I also ran western blots to determine the concentrations of HIF-1a protein in the tissue. Lastly, I stained the brain tissue with TTC to measure the infarct volumes. Additionally, I was given the data from rotor rod and open field behavioral studies. I compiled the data, and compared the motor movement performances of the control and treated mouse groups. After analyzing both behavior tests and all three neuroprotection tests using t-tests, I was able to show a significant difference between the control and treated groups, with verapamil having a positive effect. In conclusion, verapamil proves to be a strong candidate for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Verapamil is currently in Phase I clinical trials and is showing success.