Potential new therapeutic intervention for ischemic stroke

According to a 2019 update from the American Heart Association,[1] 74% of the stroke cases could be attributed to behavioral risk factors, such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and an unhealthy diet. Perhaps one exception is tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), which has been widely used and is considered the gold standard treatment for ischemic stroke. [11] The new target for therapeutic intervention for stroke as discussed above using GCSF protein or GCSF gene therapy targeting the immune system is attractive and appealing as summarized below: (1) TPA treatment for ischemic stroke is considered to be the gold standard treatment for ischemic stroke, it has a serious limitation due to a very narrow time window of opportunity for TPA treatment, usually within 3–6 hours of the beginning of stroke symptoms and its use may increase the risk of hemorrhage. By contrast, brain inflammation develops over a much slower time course and requires many hours to days to fully develop. [...]the therapeutics such as GCSF or GCSF gene therapy, which target the immune system via microglia and mTOR, will provide not only neuronal protection but also neurogenesis over the course of disease progression and recovery.