Potential New Treatment for Brain Inflammation

Intracerebral hemorrhage is a severe form of stroke that can cause severe, life-threatening neuroinflammation and brain edema. A potential new treatment strategy has been discovered to reduce the effects of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). A ligand of the TPSO protein called etifoxine, has shown to reduce inflammation and brain edema in animal models. This research has been published online in The FASEB Journal. "Targeting TSPO can restrict neuroinflammation and brain edema after ICH," said Qiang Liu, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work at the Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. "TSPO ligands have the potential to serve as a new remedy for ICH."

Liu and colleagues made their discovery after inducing ICH in mice by administration of known effectors, with or without etoxifine. Etifoxine reduced leukocyte infiltration into the brain and microglial production of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha, both hallmarks of ICH. The ligand improved blood-brain-barrier integrity and diminished cell death.

"This is a very provocative new lead on ICH," said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "A cytokine axis in ICH is not new, but the notion that this TSPO ligand can do what it does is new, and very promising."

Source-Eurekalert