Brain hypothermia in ischemic strokenon-invasive thermometry and molecular basis

Resumo

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and morbidity around the world. However, only one pharmacological treatment is currently available, the tissue pasminogen activator or rtPA. Preclinical studies demonstrated the high terapeutic potential of hypothermia to mitigate the effects of stroke, but this therapy has not been successfully translated to the clinics due to the side effects associated to cold (shivering, arrhythmia, or pneumonia among others), and due to the lack of non-invasive methods to assess brain temperature. The present work provides new data about the therapeutic potential of focal brain hypothermia as alternative to systemic cooling, the use of non-invasive magnetic resonance thermometry to measure brain temperature, and the possible implication of RBM3, a cold shock protein, in the molecular processes underlying the protective effect of cold.