Targeting ischemic penumbra: part I - from pathophysiology to therapeutic strategy.

Targeting ischemic penumbra: part I - from pathophysiology to therapeutic strategy. J Exp Stroke Transl Med. 2010 Mar 15;3(1):47-55 Authors: Liu S, Levine SR, Winn HR Abstract Penumbra is the viable tissue around the irreversibly damaged ischemic core. The purpose of acute stroke treatment is to salvage penumbral tissue and to improve brain function. However, the majority of acute stroke patients who have treatable penumbra are left untreated. Therefore, developing an effective non-recanalizational therapeutics, such as neuroprotective agents, has significant clinical applications. Part I of this serial review on "targeting penumbra" puts special emphases on penumbral pathophysiology and the development of therapeutic strategies. Bioenergetic intervention by massive metabolic suppression and direct energy delivery would be a promising future direction. An effective drug delivery system for this purpose should be able to penetrate BBB and achieve high local tissue drug levels while non-ischemic region being largely unaffected. Selective drug delivery to ischemic stroke penumbra is feasible and deserves intensive research. PMID: 20607107 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Experimental Stroke and Translational Medicine - Category: Neurology Tags: J Exp Stroke Transl Med Source Type: research