A novel role for an established player: anemia drug erythropoietin for the treatment of cerebral hypoxia/ischemia.
Erythropoietin, a hematopoietic growth-factor possessing manifold, potent neuroprotective properties, after multiple testing in cell culture and animal studies now gradually finds its way into clinical neuroscience. The first time this took place was in 1998 with a pilot study in stroke patients, the "Göttingen EPO-Stroke-Trial". This study was able to demonstrate that EPO is perfectly well tolerated and safe with this indication. Furthermore, the EPO-treated patients showed a significantly better outcome regarding their clinical progress as well as regarding the infarct size as observed by MRI, when compared to the placebo treated patients. At the moment a multicenter study is being carried out in Germany.
Ehrenreich
Hannelore
H
Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. ehrenreich@em.mpg.de
Timner
Wiebke
W
Sirén
Anna-Leena
AL
D000740:Anemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006397:Hematinics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012449:Safety; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D006397:Hematinics; D004921:Erythropoietin