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So far, intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and mechanical removal of arterial blood clot (thrombectomy) are the only available treatments for acute ischemic stroke. However, the short therapeutic window and the lack of specialized stroke unit care make the overall availability of both treatments limited. Additional agents to combine with tPA administration or thrombectomy to enhance efficacy and improve outcomes associated with stroke are needed. Stroke-induced inflammatory processes are a response to the tissue damage due to the absence of blood supply but have been proposed also as key contributors to all the stages of the ischemic stroke pathophysiology. Despite promising results in experimental studies, inflammation-modulating treatments have not yet been translated successfully into the clinical setting. This review will (a) describe the timing of the stroke immune pathophysiology; (b) detail the immune responses to stroke sift-through cell type; and (c) discuss the pitfalls on the translation from experimental studies to clinical trials testing the therapeutic pertinence of immune modulators.

Stroke represents a global challenge and is a leading cause of permanent disability worldwide. Despite much effort, translation of research findings to clinical benefit has not yet been successful. Failure of neuroprotection trials is considered, in part, due to the low quality of preclinical studies, low level of reproducibility across different laboratories and that stroke co-morbidities have not been fully considered in experimental models. More rigorous testing of new drug candidates in different experimental models of stroke and initiation of preclinical cross-laboratory studies have been suggested as ways to improve translation. However, to our knowledge, no drugs currently in clinical stroke trials have been investigated in preclinical cross-laboratory studies. The cytokine interleukin 1 is a key mediator of neuronal injury, and the naturally occurring interleukin 1 receptor antagonist has been reported as beneficial in experimental studies of stroke. In the present paper, we report on a preclinical cross-laboratory stroke trial designed to investigate the efficacy of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist in different research laboratories across Europe. Our results strongly support the therapeutic potential of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist in experimental stroke and provide further evidence that interleukin 1 receptor antagonist should be evaluated in more extensive clinical stroke trials.

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Cannabinoid receptors and the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol have been suggested to regulate food intake in several animal phyla. Orthologs of the mammalian cannabinoid CB 1 and CB 2 receptors have been identified in fish. We investigated the presence of this endocannabinoid system in the brain of the goldfish Carassius auratus and its role in food consumption. CB 1 -like immunoreactivity was distributed throughout the goldfish brain. The prosencephalon showed strong CB 1 -like immunoreactivity in the telencephalon and the inferior lobes of the posterior hypothalamus. Endocannabinoids were detected in all brain regions of C. auratus and an anandamide-hydrolysing enzymatic activity with features similar to those of mammalian fatty acid amide hydrolase was found. Food deprivation for 24 h was accompanied by a significant increase of anandamide, but not 2-arachidonoylglycerol, levels only in the telencephalon. Anandamide caused a dose-dependent effect on food intake within 2 h of intraperitoneal administration to satiated fish and significantly enhanced or reduced food intake at low (1 pg/g body weight) or intermediate (10 pg/g) doses, respectively, the highest dose tested (100 pg/g) being inactive. We suggest that endocannabinoids might variously contribute to adaptive responses to food shortage in fish.

Highlights The different experimental approaches may model different aspects of stroke. Drugs need to be tested in several clinically relevant experimental stroke models. Clot composition, type of arterial occlusion and recanalization need to be considered. Outcomes should include acute but also long-term measurements. Both infarct volume and behavioral deficits need to be systematically measured. Including coexisting risk factors in preclinical stroke research is mandatory. Performing multicenter studies may increase the reliability of preclinical results.

• Early thrombolytic treatment with a bispecific inhibitor against TAFI and PAI-1 is effective without exogenous tPA.• Even at the highest dose tested, the bispecific inhibitor against TAFI and PAI-1 does not prolong bleeding time.Circulating thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) are causal factors for thrombolytic failure. Therefore, we evaluated an antibody-engineered bispecific inhibitor against TAFI and PAI-1 (heterodimer diabody, Db-TCK26D6x33H1F7) in several mouse models of thrombosis and stroke. Prophylactic administration of the diabody (0.8 mg/kg) in a thromboplastin-induced model of thromboembolism led to decreased lung fibrin deposition. In a model of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion, diabody administration (0.8 mg/kg, 1 hour postocclusion) led to a mitigated cerebral injury with a 2.3-fold reduced lesion and improved functional outcomes. In a mouse model of thrombin-induced middle cerebral artery occlusion, the efficacy of the diabody was compared to the standard thrombolytic treatment with recombinant tissuetype plasminogen activator (tPA). Early administration of diabody (0.8 mg/kg) caused a twofold decrease in brain lesion size, whereas that of tPA (10 mg/kg) had a much smaller effect. Delayed administration of diabody or tPA had no effect on lesion size, whereas the combined administration of diabody with tPA caused a 1.7-fold decrease in lesion size. In contrast to tPA, the diabody did not increase accumulative bleeding. In conclusion, administration of a bispecific inhibitor against TAFI and PAI-1 results in a prominent profibrinolytic effect in mice without increased bleeding. (Blood. 2015;125(8):1325-1332 IntroductionPlasminogen activators are the only thrombolytic agents approved to rapidly revascularize a thrombosed vessel. Reperfusion of the ischemiaaffected organ leads to an improved outcome in patients when applied within the first hours after ischemic onset.1 Despite this evidence-based beneficial effect, current thrombolytic agents remain widely underutilized due to life-threatening side effects such as cerebral hemorrhages and possible neurotoxicity.2,3 For acute ischemic stroke, in particular, the only licensed treatment option consists of a high systemic dose of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), which is actually given to ,10% of the patients. Therefore, there is an unmet clinical need to explore novel therapeutic avenues to enhance fibrinolysis without plasminogen activator-associated adverse effects. Endogenous intravascular fibrinolysis is driven on the release of tPA from the endothelium, which in turn enzymatically activates plasminogen into the fibrin-degrading enzyme, plasmin.4 This activation step is attenuated by circulating thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Activated TAFI (TAFIa; encoded by the CPB2 gene) eliminates C-terminal Lys exposed on partially degraded fibrin, which ultimately leads to a diminished efficiency and localizati...