PARS Neuroscience Abstract
Here is a copy of the abstract of a presentation that PARS will be making at the Society for the Neurosciences meeting in Los Angeles, Nov. 7-12. It demonstrates again what an effective neuroprotective agent HU-211 is. One injection produced a 70% protection that was apparent 8 weeks later. Pretty impressive!
John de C
LONG-TERM BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF DEXABINOL (HU-211) IN RAT BRAIN TRANSIENT FOCAL ISCHEMIA. A. Bar-Joseph, V. Lavie, A. Weksler, Y. Berkovitch, and A Biegon. Pharmos, Kiryat Weizmann, Rehovot 76326, Israel
Dexanabinol (HU-211) is a nonpsychotropic cannabinoid which acts as a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist. It also has anti-oxidant and cytokine-inhibitory properties. The compound was previously shown to be neuroprotective in models of head trauma, rat optic nerve injury, global and focal ischemia. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the long-term effects of single and multiple doses of Dexanabinol and MK-801 on the prevention of degeneration and on sprouting in transient focal ischemia induced by middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion. The MCA was occluded for 90 minutes in Sprague-Dawley rats by intraluminal suture. Dexanabinol (5mg/kg i.v.) or MK-801 (1 mg/kg s.c.) And their vehicles were administered seventy-five minutes after the initiation of the ischemic insult once or once daily for seven days. The success of the MCA occlusion was clinically tested sixty minutes post insult initiation. Eight weeks later, brains were fixed, serially sectioned and stained with Hematoxyline and Eosin. The infarct volumes evaluated by a blind investigator, were measured using a computerized image analyzer. Parallel sets of sections were immunocychemically stained with anti GAP-43 to evaluate sprouting. Results demonstrated that the mean infarct volume of the single Dexanabinol treatment animals was reduced by about 70% in comparison to vehicle treated animals. The effect of repeated treatments with Dexanabinol and MK-801 as well as the GAP-43 staining is still undergoing analysis. Thus, a single dose of Dexanabinol given more than an hour after MCAO, produced a long term (eight weeks) neuroprotective effect on infarct volume. This finding further supports the clinical development of Dexanabinol for stroke. |
