Study offers a new mindset in the search for stroke therapies

  Researchers have identified a promising new avenue to explore in the search for stroke treatments, after translating findings from Alzheimer’s disease. The study published in Nature Communications finds that mice deficient in tau, a protein within brain cells (neurons), are significantly protected from excitotoxic brain damage after experimental stroke. Stroke is a major cause of death and disability, and there is only a short window for therapeutic intervention, aimed at restoring blood flow to the brain before neurons are irreversibly damaged. Professor Lars Ittner and Dr Yazi Ke at University of New South Wales and NeuRA had already established that in Alzheimer’s