Now, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California have discovered a potentially new treatment for stroke. A stroke cuts off the blood and oxygen flow to a region of brain tissue-an event known as ischemia. A family of tyrosine kinase molecules collectively called Src, is known to link VEGF and increased vascular permeability. Moreover, they discovered that a drug known to block Src activity, PP1, was able to protect normal mice from brain damage due to stroke if given within the first 6 hours of the event. When blood clots unnecessarily, the resulting thrombosis can be life threatening.
Death occurs when fractions of the clot break off and pass to and block the arteries of the lungs.
Drugs that are able to prevent the formation of clots include heparin, warfarin and aspirin. A report in the February issue of Nature Medicine by a team of scientists from the Center for Transgene Technology and Gene Therapy at Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, Belgium, describes a potentially new target for the development of anti-thrombotic drugs. Using a strain of mice lacking the gene for Gas6, they discovered that disabling the Gas6 gene protects mice against fatal blood clotting, but at the same time the mice do not suffer from excessive bleeding. Moreover, because of the ability of Gas6 to amplify the response of platelets to clotting stimuli, antibodies to Gas6 protected mice against fatal blood clotting. Thus, this protein may be the target for new anti-clotting drugs.