A vaccine to stop recurrent stroke is promising in mice

MONDAY, Oct. 29, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Stroke remains a leading cause of death. But could a simple vaccine help prevent recurrence among stroke survivors one day?

This is the promise of new Japanese research conducted on mice.

A vaccine that would replace or be used alongside standard heart pills could help prevent secondary strokes and possibly heart attacks, thus saving many lives, said study co-author Dr. Hironori Nakagami, professor at the University of Osaka.

"Many stroke patients do not take their anticoagulant medications as prescribed, which increases the chances that they will have another stroke," he explained. "This vaccine could one day help to solve this problem because it should only be injected periodically."

As the researchers pointed out, people who have had a stroke caused by a blood clot often took medication to thin the blood afterwards, to reduce the risk of stroke. But these drugs can also increase the risk of serious bleeding.

However, in mice at least, the experimental vaccine protects against blood clots for more than two months. It did so without increasing the risk of bleeding or provoking an autoimmune response, and it worked as well as clopidogrel, an anticoagulant pill, (Plavix). Hypertension.

Of course, many animal study results have not been successful in humans. But Nakagami said his team members intended to test the vaccine in people in the future.

"We are continuing our research in the hope of being able to start clinical trials in five to ten years, but there are differences between mice and humans as to how the vaccine will be recognized by the immune system," he said. said Nakagami in a newspaper. Release. "We should be able to overcome these problems and believe that this vaccine is a very promising strategy in the secondary prevention of stroke."

An American stroke expert believes the strategy may be promising.

"Experimentally, that sounds promising," said Dr. Satjit Bhusri, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

However, the effectiveness of the vaccine in survivors of stroke "could be more complicated," noted Bhusri. For example, a long-acting vaccine "may increase the risk of bleeding around the previous stroke," he said.

"In addition, the absence of an inversion agent or antidote if such an event occurs is an important factor in deciding the overall usefulness of the vaccine", said Bhusri.

More information

The National Stroke Association has more on ischemic accidents.