Nanoparticle and Stem Cell Combination Therapy for the Management of Stroke

Abstract

Stroke is currently one of the primary causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Unfortunately, the available treatments for stroke are still extremely limited. Indeed, stem cell (SC) therapy is a new option for the treatment of stroke that could significantly expand the therapeutic time window of stroke. Some proposed mechanisms for stroke-based SC therapy are the incorporation of SCs into the host brain to replace dead or damaged cells/tissues. Moreover, acute cell delivery can inhibit apoptosis and decrease lesion size, providing immunomudolatory and neuroprotection effects. However, several major SC problems related to SCs such as homing, viability, uncontrolled differentiation, and possible immune response, have limited SC therapy. A combination of SC therapy with nanoparticles (NPs) can be a solution to address these challenges. NPs have received considerable attention in regulating and controlling the behavior of SCs because of their unique physicochemical properties. By reviewing the pathophysiology of stroke and the therapeutic benefits of SCs and NPs, we hypothesize that combined therapy will offer a promising future in the field of stroke management. In this work, we discuss recent literature in SC research combined with NP-based strategies that may have a synergistic outcome after stroke incidence.

Nanoparticle Formulations of Antioxidants for the Management of Oxidative Stress in Stroke: A Review

“…Recently, the role of oxidative stress in brain damage due to stroke has been an important topic in stroke research. In the normal tissue, free radicals are generated as a normal product of cellular metabolism, gene transcription, and cell signaling but a balance between production and removal of ROS is provided by the endogenous antioxidant defense system [17]. Increased level of ROS has been found to be associated with obvious oxidative stress and alterations in the structure of DNA, proteins, and lipids (Figure 2).…”