Impact of peripheral inflammation on cerebrovascular disease

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The blood supply to the brain provides essential oxygen and nutrients to support brain function. During stroke the blood supply to the brain may be reduced or blocked. This causes nerve cells in the brain to die, which can be fatal for the patient or leave them severely disabled. Although some treatments are available for stroke, these are not suitable for all patients and not always widely effective. We need therefore to understand more about why stroke occurs and what causes the brain cells to die so that new treatments can be developed.Inflammation is the response of the body to fight infection, but it can also lead to a variety of diseases, such as arthritis and asthma. The inflammation that occurs outside the brain, for example in a blood vessel, can contribute to the development of conditions such as stroke and make the patient much worse. Therefore in this proposal our aim is to understand how inflammation and infection outside the brain affect events within the brain. To do this we will study animals that develop disease of their blood vessels in much the same way that many humans do, to see if this causes strokes and, if so, how. The studies should help us to identify better animal models of human stroke in which to test new treatments. We also aim to discover substances within the blood or brain that can predict the occurrence of brain diseases such as stroke, so that patients can be treated early.