Watch Dr Daniel Beard accept the research grant award and hear a bit about the project.
Project Summary:
Increasing blood flow through brain bypass vessels could help save the brain from stroke. Unfortunately, there has been no effective way of enhancing bypass flow using vessel widening (vasodilating) drugs without causing vasodilation of all blood vessels, leading to a drop in blood pressure (analogous to losing water pressure in a hose). We have teamed up with Harvard University who produce vasodilating drugs packaged into nanoparticles. These nanoparticles only release vasodilating drugs when exposed to levels of a frictional force known as shear stress only found in brain bypass vessels. So far, we have shown that these nanoparticles can selectively deliver vasodilators to only bypass vessels and can enhance bypass flow in our experimental stroke model, significantly reducing stroke severity without a dropping in blood pressure. In this project we aim to confirm the safety of NG-NPAs in a range of pre-clinical stroke models that better reflect the complexity of the stroke patient population to be ready for clinical trials to reduce severity of the stroke and improve patient outcome.
The Brain Foundation is the largest, independent funder of brain and spinal injury research in Australia. We believe research is the pathway to recovery.