Project Details
Projekt
Coordination Funds
Applicant
Professor Dr. Arthur Liesz
Subject Area
Molecular and Cellular Neurology and Neuropathology
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 405358801
Ischemic stroke is the primary cause of long-term disability and the third leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Current treatments for stroke are limited, and preclinical experimental findings often fail in clinical trials. Therefore, new avenues of basic research with high translation potential are desperately needed in order to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Although the development of local inflammatory processes in the ischemic brain is a known phenomenon, precisely how these immune processes are linked to the secondary expansion of the infarct area and the role of the immune system in post-stroke regeneration remain poorly understood. Interestingly, while cerebral ischemia is traditionally not considered a classic neuroinflammatory disorder, stroke induces a plethora of immune responses similar to the responses that occur in autoimmune brain diseases. Moreover, the stroke-related acute brain injury has a robust effect on the peripheral immune system, inducing a multiphasic immune response. The reciprocal interaction between immunological responses and brain injury is poorly understood, particularly with respect to the mechanisms underlying recovery following stroke. This research unit ImmunoStroke is focusing on studying the role of immunity in repair mechanisms and long-term recovery following stroke. The projects described for the renewal of this consortium in its second funding period are designed to i) address how immunity modulates the recovery process following stroke; ii) clarify the role of neuroinflammation in stroke patients; and iii) and identify novel markers of post-stroke neuroinflammation. These goals will be achieved using cutting-edge technologies and new treatment paradigms in order to understand and modulate the immune responses that occur following experimental stroke. Importantly, the preclinical experiments will be highly standardized, the key findings will be validated in multicenter preclinical RCTs, and the experiments will be supported by analyses performed using stroke patients.
DFG Programme
Research Units
