FAU research advances stroke, Parkinson's treatments

April 22-- Apr. 22--The latest developments out of Florida Atlantic University hold promising news for both the immediate treatment of stroke and the ongoing treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Let's start with the former.

With ischemic strokes -- of which some 87 percent of all strokes are -- a vessel that supplies blood to the brain is obstructed by a clot.

When the brain is deprived of blood, brain cells die -- so every second counts.

For the past two decades, administration of the so-called "clot-busting" drug tPA has been the most widely used intervention treatment to mitigate ischemic stroke damage.

However, last year at the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles, one of the event's major takeaways was the strong recommendation that for stroke patients who are being treated within four to six hours of the onset of symptoms, mechanical thrombectomy with a stent retriever was the preferred course of action.

Dr. Brian Snelling, a cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgeon at Boca Raton Regional Hospital'sMarcus Neuroscience Institute, specializes in this delicate procedure, in which the clot is removed.

When a surgeon can perform a mechanical thrombectomy -- which Snelling likens to giving antibiotics to a pneumonia patient -- on a stroke victim, the likelihood of death or severe disability is significantly reduced.

And now a collaboration between Florida Atlantic University'sSchmidt College of Medicine and BRRH appears to have enhanced the potential long-term efficacy of this procedure.

John Wu, a professor of biomedical science at FAU, has developed a therapeutic method to replenish new brain cells by using an FDA-approved drug called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF).

The drug is already being used to enhance blood-cell development in Parkinson's patients.

What Wu has presented to Snelling is this: administer GCSF during a mechanical thrombectomy directly to the site of the blockage.

Because the drug would target the exact spot of the clot, its multitude of potential benefits -- including preservation of the central nervous system; generation of new neurons; growth of new blood vessels; suppression of cell death; and release of powerful growth factors to stimulate cell replenishment -- would theoretically be maximized.

"This drug has been successfully used with very few side effects for patients who require bone marrow transplants to stimulate blood cell formation," said Wu. "This is actually the reason why I thought GCSF also could be used for neurogenesis (generation of new neurons). It's the same principle and we proved that years ago. Now, we have a new indication to use this drug and to test its efficacy in combination with a mechanical thrombectomy."

FAU Vice President for Research Daniel C. Flynn notes Wu's and Snelling's collaboration "could revolutionize the way we treat stroke patients and ultimately patients with other devastating neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's."

And speaking of Parkinson's, researchers (one assistant professor and two students) from FAU's College of Engineering and Computer Sciences have developed a way to help Parkinson's patients effectively adjust the timing and dosages of medication, as well as the parameters of deep-brain stimulation, as the disease progresses.

As explained in a study that was just published in the journal "Medical Engineering and Physics," senior author and assistant professor Behnaz Ghoraani; co-author and FAU Ph.D. student Murtadha D. Hssayeni; and 17-year-old dual-enrolled FAU High School and FAU computer sciences major Lillian Boettcher developed a sensor-based system and accompanying computer algorithm to "reliably detect and monitor [when Parkinson's patients are in] medication ON and OFF states."

This is important because Parkinson's patients experience fluctuations in basic motor skills and coordination as the disease progresses.

Patients and physicians have traditionally relied on patients' own "self-reporting" -- which may not always be accurate -- as well as physicians' anecdotal observations during in-person clinical exams.

Thus, the researchers' goal was to create an individualized system that can be trained, customized and is data-driven.

"Our approach is novel because it is customized to each patient rather than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and can continuously detect and report medication ON and OFF states as patients perform different daily routine activities," said Ghoraani.

FAU researchers envision this study leading to the eventual creation of "an in-home monitoring system that provides comprehensive, clinically actionable information about a patient's motor fluctuation severity."

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