Carissa Wong is a person.

A 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the brain of a 65-year-old after a stroke. The orange coloring represents an area of dead tissue

The brain of a 65-year-old after a stroke is being scanned. Dead tissue is represented by the orange colour.

SOVEREIGN, ISM/SCIENCELIBRARY.

One day, a drug that improves motor skills and memory in mice may fill an unmet need in treatment for this disabling condition.

Rehabilitation or drugs that reduce the risk of future strokes are the main treatments after an ischaemic stroke. Drugs can't repair brain tissue that has been damaged. Poor memory, movement issues and a reduced ability to solve problems can be caused by injuries.

In 2009, researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio discovered that chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans can be found in scar tissue. Damage to brain tissue can be prevented by the creation of astickiness.

The researchers have come up with a drug that targets theCSPG. Jerry Silver says that the drug prevents the tissue from sticking.

To test the drug, which is apeptide, for stroke damage, Silver and his colleagues injected 40 mice daily with the solution for three weeks, starting one week after the rodents had a surgery-caused ischaemic stroke.

The researchers stuck a piece of tape on one of the mouse's paws. The mice that were treated with the drug were able to remove the tape with one paw and their mouth was more open than the control mice.

A full week after an injury, we can treat them from just one day to a full week.

When the team looked at the brains of the mice that had been given the peptide, they found an increase in the number of connections between their brain cells. The brain stem cells migrated into the injury site.

Stanley Thomas Carmichael at the University of California, Los Angeles says that the results are surprising.

The treatment may work in other types of strokes.

The system that is influenced by thispeptide is also involved in other forms of stroke and brain haemorrhage, so one might imagine that it will have activity in these other stroke types.

The team wants to test the drug in healthy people. Thepeptide was found to be safe in early trials.

The delivery of the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in the human body is promising for translation to humans.

The journal is titled Cell Reports and is published on the internet.

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  • medical drugs
  • brain
  • drug trials