Research

Area 4

Brain ischemia: Clinical and experimental studies.

Team leader

  • Anna M. Planas
    (IIBB-CSIC)

Strategic objectives

Study of cerebrovascular pathology from the clinical and basic perspective, with special emphasis on inflammation and immune response, as well as on the use of neuroimaging techniques. The ultimate aim is to develop therapeutic strategies in application to stroke.

Main lines of research


1. Immunological mechanisms implicated in the progression of ischemic stroke and in the appearance of infectious complications. Study of inflammatory and innate immune responses in stroke. Genetic aspects of immune response.

2. Identification of new antioxidant treatments in stroke. Preclinical studies of the protective effects of these treatments and of the mechanisms involved. Design and conduction of a phase IIb study involving the administration of uric acid in stroke treated with rtPA.

3. Use of intraarterial rescue treatments with rtPA in patients previously treated with intravenous rtPA and selected by multimodal imaging techniques.

4. Neuroimaging in brain ischemia: application of magnetic resonance (MR) techniques for the in vivo noninvasive monitorization of patients and experimental animals in relation to anatomical and functional parameters of brain damage – including immune response.

5. Signals implicated in neuron death and survival in ischemia: role of endoplasmic reticulum stress and molecular regulation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1a).

6. Neurological repair and neurogenesis in brain ischemia: effect of inflammation upon neurogenesis.