A study involving scientists from the Instituto de Investigaciones Químicas (IIQ), an institute belonging to CicCartuja, has discovered that the MBL lectin sugar receptor plays a key role in brain damage associated with stroke. The study, published in the journal Circulation*, reveals that inhibition of this receptor can protect a brain affected by this ailment.
IIQ researcher Javier Rojo points out that ‘this protein, which also recognises and interacts with the sugar mannose, plays a fundamental role in the first steps of the activation of the cascade of processes involved in stroke-associated brain damage’. Inhibiting this protein therefore generates a protective effect.
Javier Rojo considers MBL lectin to be ‘a broad therapeutic target for stroke’. Until now, the most common treatment for stroke has been to destroy the thrombus.
However, Rojo believes that this is ‘an insufficient remedy, as its effect is only effective for three to four hours after the event, after which the damage would be irreversible; however, this new therapeutic strategy could be applied even more than 24 hours after the stroke has taken place, which would allow a greater capacity for action’.
* Franca Orsini, Pia Villa, Sara Parrella, Rosalia Zangari, Elisa R. Zanier, Raffaella Gesuete, Matteo Stravalaci, Stefano Fumagalli, Roberta Ottria, José J. Reina, Alessandra Paladini, Edoardo Micotti, Renato Ribeiro-Viana, Javier Rojo, Vasile I. Pavlov, Gregory L. Stahl, Anna Bernardi, Marco Gobbi and Maria-Grazia De Simoni. Targeting Mannose-Binding Lectin Confers Long-Lasting Protection With a Surprisingly Wide Therapeutic Window in Cerebral Ischemia. Circulation. DOI: 10.1161/circulationaha.112.103051