Discovery paves way for better stroke recovery

A new discovery could lead to much-needed therapies to assist recovery from strokes.

Scientists have found a neuronal signalling system that blocks the brain's ability to repair itself.

Switching off the pathway, known as GABA, improved recovery in mice that had suffered strokes.

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When a stroke occurs, the brain becomes over-excited, causing large numbers of neurons to die off. GABA is part of a natural process that tries to overcome this problem by reducing excitability levels.

But the US researchers found that although the system, called "tonic inhibition", initially limited the spread of stroke damage, it persisted for too long, holding back recovery weeks later.

"It was surprising to find that the level of tonic inhibition was increased for so long after stroke and that there was an inflection point where the increased level eventually hindered the brain from recovering," said study leader Dr Tom Carmichael, from the University of California at Los Angeles.

By blocking the GABA molecule in mice, it was possible to "switch off" the tonic inhibition response, said the scientists writing in the journal Nature.

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