Reducing Calcium Overload in the Ischemic Brain

Abstract

The development of effective treatments for stroke has focused on two general strategies. The first, thrombolysis, became available in 1996, when the Food and Drug Administration approved alteplase (tissue plasminogen activator) for administration within three hours after the onset of ischemic stroke. The goal of thrombolysis is to restore blood flow by lysing an intraarterial thrombus before brain cells die. The second, neuroprotection, is still in the preclinical pipeline. Its aim is to attenuate the intrinsic vulnerability of brain tissue to ischemia by blocking biochemical cascades that cause secondary injury. Prominent among these cascades is the neurotoxicity induced by the . . .