Monthly Archives: March 2012

A recent study conducted by the Toronto Western Hospital Research Institute shows that a new drug known as NA-1 may protect recipients from brain damage from stroke.

The study was performed on monkeys by Dr. Michael Tymianski and a team of researchers, and suggested that brain damage from stroke could be prevented even if the drug is administered several hours after a stroke.

During the study, the monkeys that received the drug scored better on brain function tests and maintained additional healthy brain tissue in comparison to monkeys that were not given the drug. According to Dr. Tymianski, monkeys were chosen for the study because they’re more biologically similar to humans than rats or mice.

This being said, over the last 50 years, there have been over 1,000 drugs have been designed for a similar purpose, reducing brain damage caused from a stroke. While all of the prior drugs have worked in rats and mice, none of them have been effective for humans.