Nanoneuroprotection against glutamatergic excitotoxicity in ischemic stroke

Abstract

Blood/brain-glutamate grabbing is an emerging concept in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, where essentially the deleterious effects of glutamate after ischemia are ameliorated by coaxing glutamate to enter the bloodstream and thus reducing its concentration in the brain. In this Thesis we resorted to a drug-repositioning strategy for the discovery of new glutamate-grabbing drugs, aiming to demonstrate the preclinical and clinical effect in ischemic stroke. The use of nanoparticles has emerged as a need to provide treatments for personalized nanomedicine through specific interactions at molecular levels, increasing the efficiency of therapies as glutamate-grabbing drugs, tested previously. In this Thesis we optimize the active targeting of polystyrene nanoparticles to an inducible target of endothelial cells in different experimental conditions. Finally, we analyzed the biocompatibility of new mesoporous nanostructures for drug delivery and contrast agent.