A nasal spray designed to protect brain cells after stroke could offer a new prehospital emergency option, researchers say.
Researchers say the approach could help slow brain cell death and buy time for clot-removing or clot-busting treatment.
The spray has been developed by scientists at the University of Hong Kong, who describe it as the world’s first nasal spray designed to protect brain cells immediately after stroke.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, with researchers citing an annual global healthcare burden of more than US$890bn.
Current stroke treatment usually begins after hospital admission and can involve clot-breaking drugs or reperfusion therapies, which aim to restore blood flow through arteries going to the brain.
The window for effective treatment is narrow, meaning more than 85 per cent of patients are unable to receive treatment quickly enough.
Researchers said many brain-targeting drugs also fail in trials because they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier is the brain’s protective filter. It helps keep harmful substances out of the brain, but can also stop medicines reaching the area where they are needed.
Aviva Chow Shing-fung, from the University of Hong Kong, said: “The failure rate of drug candidates targeting the central nervous system in clinical trials exceeds 90 per cent, largely because these drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, and thus fail to reach the brain to exert their therapeutic effects.”
To address this, the team developed a “Nanopowder” nasal spray containing brain-protective drugs in ultra-small inhalable powders.
The spray is inhaled into the nasal cavity, where it settles in the target area and separates into nanoparticles.
These tiny particles then travel through the nose-to-brain pathway, bypassing the blood-brain barrier.
Researchers said this could deliver the drug directly to the brain and provide early protection while a patient is being taken to hospital.
They reported that giving the nasal spray within 30 minutes of stroke onset reduced brain tissue death by more than 80 per cent in their tests.
They also said the spray protected neurological and body movement functions, reduced inflammation, helped prevent cell death and supported the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
Neurological functions are abilities controlled by the brain and nervous system, such as movement, speech, memory and coordination.
Shao Zitong, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong, said: “After a stroke, every second matters.
“Even an additional 10 minutes of brain protection might determine whether a patient can walk or speak in the future.
“The key breakthrough of this technology lies in shifting stroke treatment from the ‘in-hospital’ setting to the ‘prehospital’ stage, enabling neuroprotection rather than merely clot dissolution or thrombectomy.”
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