2017 Volume 17 Issue 8 Pages 359-366
Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of severe disability and death in the world. Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) for thrombolytic therapy is the only approved therapeutic agent worldwide for acute ischemic stroke. However, patients received t-PA therapy are extremely limited due to the narrow therapeutic time window (TTW) and the risk of cerebral hemorrhage. In addition, cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a serious problem for the patient’s prognosis. Hence, development of more effective therapies has been most desirable. As a distinctive phenomenon after an ischemic stroke, it has been reported that vascular permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is increased around the ischemic region. Our previous studies revealed that nano-sized liposomes can accumulate in the ischemic region via the disintegrated BBB and that liposomal delivery of neuroprotective agents should be effective for the treatment of cerebral I/R injury. In addition, our recent study demonstrated that combination treatment with liposomal neuroprotectants and t-PA could suppress the deleterious effects of t-PA and prolong its TTW in an ischemic stroke model rat prepared by the photochemically induced thrombosis method. In this review, we introduce our recent findings on ischemic stroke therapy by using liposomal drug delivery systems.
