The History of Clinical Neuroprotection Failure

Neuroprotection in stroke treatment refers to a group of treatments and drugs aimed to antagonize the biochemical and molecular processes that lead to irreversible ischemic damage. In recent years, several clinical studies have been conducted to test the efficacy of several promising molecules with different mechanisms of action. However, the results obtained from preclinical studies (on in vitro models or on animals), despite having provided excellent results, making the goal of stroke neuroprotection at least achievable, were accompanied by a high failure rate. The reasons for these failures are linked to the unbridgeable difference between the animal and human models and to the marked heterogeneity of stroke in humans. Although future perspectives are encouraging, other techniques such as neuroprotectant cocktails, reperfusion, improving angiogenesis and collateral circulations, and infarction prevention, may represent a goal in stroke neuroprotection.