Lost brain function restored after stroke, finds study

Researchers have succeeded in restoring lost brain function in mouse models of stroke using small molecules that in the future could potentially be developed into a stroke recovery therapy. "Communication between nerve cells in large parts of the brain changes after a stroke and we show that it can be partially restored with the treatment," says Tadeusz Wieloch, senior professor of neurobiology at Lund University in Sweden.

An international study published recently in the journal Brain and led by a research team from Lund University in collaboration with University of Rome La Sapeinza and Washington University at St. Louis, shows promising results in mice and rats that were treated with a class of substances that inhibit the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR5), a receptor that regulates communication in the brain's nerve cell network.

"Rodents treated with the GluR5 inhibitor regained their somatosensori functions," says Tadeusz Wieloch, who led the study published in BRAIN.

Two days after the stroke, i.e. when the damage had developed and function impairment was most prominent, the researchers started treating the rodents that exhibited the greatest impaired function.

The results also showed that sensorimotor function was further improved if treatment with the mGluR5 inhibitor is combined with somatosensory training by housing several rodents in cages enriched with toys, chains, grids, and plastic tubes.

Reference: Jakob Hakon, Miriana J Quattromani, Carin Sjölund, Daniela Talhada, Byungchan Kim, Slavianka Moyanova, Federica Mastroiacovo, Luisa Di Menna, Roger Olsson, Elisabet Englund, Ferdinando Nicoletti, Karsten Ruscher, Adam Q Bauer, Tadeusz Wieloch. Inhibiting metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 after stroke restores brain function and connectivity. Brain, 2023; DOI: 10.1093/brain/awad293