Every second counts
Andrew Tasker, professor of neuropharmacology and research professor at the Atlantic Veterinary College, shares information regarding stroke research at AVC
Time is of the essence when a person is having a stroke since 1.5 million brain cells die every minute that a stroke goes untreated.
There is currently nothing on the market in terms of protecting brain cells from dying during a stroke, but the science is getting close and some of the most important contributions are happening in P.E.I. at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown.
Andrew Tasker, professor of neuropharmacology and research professor at the Atlantic Veterinary College, and his team, did some innovative research 15 years ago in examining a totally new class of drugs to protect the brain after having a stroke.
Their role, at the Atlantic Veterinary College research lab, was to see whether in fact the molecule that had been created (NA-1 peptide) would protect the brain during an experimental stroke in animal models.
Their findings showed that the infarct (part of the brain that is dead following a stroke) was dramatically reduced in terms of total size and region. They also found that it decreased the neurological score, which evaluates the deficits that the animals were experiencing after a stroke, showing that this drug protected the brain in a number of ways.
The Canadian Stroke Network and the Heart and Stroke Foundation funded this groundbreaking study. A company was then created called NoNO Inc. to attract further investment to take that compound through regulatory testing.
Since then, the NA-1 drug has undergone numerous trials and is currently in year two of the FRONTIER trial in Vancouver.
As of March, it is also now being tested on a global stage. The NA-1 drug is being paired with a new procedure called endovascular thrombectomy (ET) in the global Phase III trial called ESCAPE-NA-1 for acute ischemic stroke.