A research team at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) has found a method to treat acute inflammatory reaction after intracerebral hemorrhage by using nanoparticles, the hospital said Wednesday.

SNUH Professor Lee Seung-hoon

Intracerebral hemorrhage, a devastating subtype of stroke with a high mortality rate, occurs when a weak cerebral blood vessel bursts. Accompanying it are symptoms such as headaches, low consciousness, paralysis, and seizures. A cerebral edema caused by an intense inflammatory reaction after the intracerebral hemorrhage is more dangerous than the hemorrhage itself and can result in death.

Actual intracerebral hemorrhage patients die within a month in 40 percent of the cases, and 50 percent of the remaining patients die within a year. Only 12 to 39 percent of the patients can be expected to make a full functional recovery.

The SNUH 서울대학교병원 team led by Professor Lee Seung-hoon 이승훈 of the department of neurology focused on the inflammatory response of the surrounding tissues after cerebral hemorrhaging and found the brain edema causing subsequent brain damage had a direct correlation with deaths.

The research team chose “ceria nanoparticles,” an excellent nanoparticle for removing reactive oxygen, which plays a significant role in the inflammatory response, as a therapeutic substance.

The team confirmed that ceria nanoparticle it had developed had inflammation inhibition and cytoprotective effect after being applied to cells with a hemorrhagic environment.

Intracerebral hemorrhage animal clinical trial models (mice) also showed decreases in macrophages, playing a key role in the early stage of inflammatory reaction after a cerebral hemorrhage, around cerebral hemorrhage lesions compared with the control group. Proteins manifested during inflammation also decreased.

As the inflammation reaction decreased, brain edema caused by cerebral hemorrhage fell by 68.4 percent compared with the control group.

"The demand for the treatment of cerebral hemorrhage has always existed with the development of therapeutic drugs around the world, but the development of treatments is still progressing with difficulty," Professor Lee said. "This could be a groundbreaking study, in that it identified the primary pathophysiology of brain damage after cerebral hemorrhage and introduced the appropriate nanotechnology to overcome the problem."

The research, which has successfully finished trials on animals, needs to conduct additional tests before applying the technology to humans, Prof. Lee added.

The results of the study were published in a recent edition of Nano Research. The team has already completed the application for patents both at home and abroad, with Patent Cooperation Treaty.

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