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(Stroke. 2003;34:2013.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.
Original Contributions |
From the University of California San Diego, Department of Neuroscience, La Jolla; and VASDHS and Veterans Medical Research Foundation, San Diego, Calif.
Correspondence to Dr Paul A. Lapchak, University of California San Diego, Department of Neuroscience, MTF 316, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA 920930624. E-mail plapchak{at}ucsd.edu
| Abstract |
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Methods Male New Zealand White rabbits were embolized by injection of a suspension of small blood clots into the middle cerebral artery via a catheter. Five minutes after embolization, ebselen (10 to 50 mg/kg) was infused intravenously. Control rabbits received infusions of the vehicle required to solubilize ebselen. In additional rabbits, ebselen (20 mg/kg) was administered 60 minutes after embolization, either alone or in combination with tPA (0.9 or 3.3 mg/kg tPA). Behavioral analysis was conducted 24 hours after embolization, allowing determination of the effective stroke dose (P50) or clot amount (mg) that produces neurological deficits in 50% of the rabbits.
Results A drug is considered neuroprotective if it significantly increases the P50 compared with the vehicle-treated control group. The P50 of controls 24 hours after embolization was 1.35±0.30 mg. Rabbits treated 5 minutes after embolization with 10, 20, or 50 mg/kg ebselen had P50 values of 2.12±0.56, 2.82±0.75 (P<0.05), and 0.49±0.54 mg, respectively. A significant neuroprotective effect was observed with the 20-mg/kg dose, but not if there was a 60-minute delay before administration (P50=1.69±0.32 mg). When tPA (3.3 mg/kg) was infused 60 minutes after embolization and ebselen (20 mg/kg) was injected at either 5 (P50=2.98±0.18 mg) or 60 (P50=3.60±0.79 mg) minutes, there was no additional neuroprotective effect compared with tPA alone (P50=3.38±0.55 mg). However, if ebselen (20 mg/kg) was administered concomitantly with low-dose tPA (0.9 mg/kg) 60 minutes after embolization, the P50 was 3.52±0.73 mg (P<0.05), indicating a synergistic effect of the drug combination because neither alone was effective (P50=1.69±0.32 and 1.54±0.36 mg, respectively).
Conclusions This study indicates that ebselen may be neuroprotective when administered shortly after an embolic stroke, but the time- and dose-response analyses suggest that it has a narrow therapeutic window. Nevertheless, ebselen may be beneficial if administered concomitantly with a thrombolytic because it significantly enhanced the neuroprotective activity of low-dose tPA.
Key Words: ischemia neuroprotection reperfusion thrombolytic therapy tissue plasminogen activator rabbits
| Introduction |
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Preliminary clinical trials have shown that ebselen may be useful in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. The first report of a placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial showed that there was a significantly better outcome in ebselen-treated patients at 1 month but not 3 months after treatment.10 A second report concluded that ebselen slightly reduced cerebral infarct volume, but the magnitude of the neuroprotection was not statistically significant.11 In fact, a good outcome was seen in only
15% of patients. Therefore, although the results are promising, ebselen alone may not be an optimal treatment to achieve significant clinical improvement in patients with severe acute ischemic stroke. This is not surprising given that, with the exception of thrombolysis, monotherapy for stroke has proven unsuccessful (see reviews1214).
The main objective of the present study was to assess the neuroprotective profile of ebselen in a rabbit model of embolic stroke that reproduces many facets of human stroke.1517 The rabbit small clot embolism model (RSCEM) uses administration of sized blood microclots to induce strokes and behavioral deficits that can be quantified, resulting in random infarcts throughout the brain.15,16 Moreover, the RSCEM is useful in testing the effects of drugs, whether alone or in combination with the only Food and Drug Administrationapproved therapy for stroke, the thrombolytic tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). This makes the RSCEM ideally suited to assess whether the combination of 2 drugs (ebselen and tPA) with radically different mechanisms of action interact to enhance behavioral outcome.
| Methods |
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Male New Zealand White rabbits were anesthetized with halothane (5% induction, 2% maintenance by face mask); the bifurcation of the right carotid artery was exposed; and the external carotid artery was ligated just distal to the bifurcation, where a catheter was inserted anteriorly into the common carotid and secured with ligatures. The incision was closed around the catheter with the distal ends left accessible outside the neck; the catheter was filled with heparinized saline and plugged with an injection cap. Rabbits were allowed to recover from anesthesia for a minimum of 3 hours until they awoke and behaved normally.
For the RSCEM, microclots were prepared from blood drawn from a donor rabbit and allowed to clot at 37°C as described in detail previously.15,16 To assess the hemorrhage incidence with low- (0.9 mg/kg) and high- (3.3 mg/kg) dose tPA, we used the rabbit large clot embolism model (RLCEM). For RLCEM experiments, blood clots were prepared and injected as described previously.15,18
Drug Administration
Drugs were given intravenously starting 5 or 60 minutes after embolization. Ebselen (10, 20, or 50 mg/kg), a gift from DAIICHI Pharmaceuticals or purchased from Alexis Biochemical, was suspended in 50% ß-hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin (Cerestar Inc) for injection.
tPA (3.3 or 0.9 mg/kg) was given 60 minutes after embolization, with 20% as a bolus injection over 1 minute, followed by the remainder infused over 30 minutes.18 Genentech, Inc supplied tPA lyophilized in 50-mg configurations containing 50 mg tPA (29 million IU), 1.7 mg L-arginine, 0.5 g phosphoric acid, and <4 mg Polysorbate 80, the same formulation used clinically, that was then reconstituted with sterile water (1 mg/mL).
For combination studies, ebselen (20 mg/kg) was infused beginning 5 or 60 minutes after embolization, and tPA was given (3.3 or 0.9 mg/kg) beginning 60 minutes after embolization.
Rabbits were observed continuously for a minimum of 2 hours after embolization and treatment; neurological function was scored than and again at 24 hours after embolization. For the 24-hour score, an observer who was naive to the treatments did the end-point analysis.
RSCEM Analyses
For the RSCEM, a quantal dose-response data analysis technique was used as described previously15,16 and reviewed in detail by Zivin and Waud.17 A wide range of clot doses were used, resulting in normal and abnormal animals, with small numbers of microclots causing no grossly apparent neurological dysfunction and large numbers of microclots invariably causing encephalopathy or death. Using a simple dichotomous rating system with a reproducible composite result and low interrater variability (<5%), a naive observer rated each animal as either behaviorally normal or abnormal. Abnormal rabbits include those with
1 of the following symptoms: ataxia, leaning, circling, lethargy, nystagmus, loss of balance, loss of sensation, and occasionally paraplegia. Using the system, we are unable to detect small changes in improvement over the duration of the study, which may be considered a type 2 error because of reduced power to detect small changes. However, the model and analysis are well suited to detect robust changes after pharmacological intervention. Moreover, because of the use of a fully randomized design, multiple groups of rabbits can be directly compared. The effective stroke dose or P50 value was then calculated as the amount of microclots that produce neurological dysfunction (impairment) in 50% of the rabbits within a specific treatment group.
RLCEM Analyses
Embolized rabbits that died before euthanasia were included in the study. Their brains were fixed and sectioned as described below. Surviving animals were euthanized 48 hours after embolization. Their brains were removed, immersion fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for at least 5 days, and then examined by an observer blinded to the treatment groups. The right middle cerebral artery also was examined for the presence of emboli; surface blood vessels were stripped from the cerebral hemispheres; and the cerebellum was removed from the brain stem. Hemispheres and brain stem were cut into seven 5-mm-thick coronal slices, each having 2 faces, for a total of 14. The presence and size of each hemorrhage and infarct were noted as described previously.15,18 Hemorrhage size was recorded as the number of section faces showing hemorrhage, whereas infarction was grossly visible as pale, softer tissue surrounded by pink, normal brain tissue on the sections. Finally, the total radioactivity in brain slices, cerebellum, and brain stem, as well as surface vessels from the right hemisphere, was measured with a gamma counter. The amount of radiolabel in the tissues and right hemisphere vessels was compared with label in the blood clot at embolization. If <10% of the counts were in the brain and vessels, it was assumed that the labeled blood clot did not reach the brain,15,18 and data from these animals were excluded from further analyses.
For all experiments in this study, rabbits were randomly allocated into treatment groups before the embolization procedure, with concealment of the randomization guaranteed by the use of an independent third party. The randomization sequence was not revealed until all postmortem analyses were complete.
Statistical Analysis
For the RSCEM, a separate curve was generated for each treatment tested. The t test was used for comparison between groups, with the Bonferroni correction used for multiple comparisons when appropriate. The RLCEM data were analyzed with the
2 test for hemorrhage/infarct rate and analysis of variance when relevant.
| Results |
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Ebselen and tPA Combination
These experiments assessed the effects of treating embolized rabbits with ebselen and tPA. Ebselen (20 mg/kg) was given starting 5 or 60 minutes after embolization, with tPA (3.3 mg/kg) injection starting 60 minutes after embolization. With tPA alone, a significant increase in the P50 (P50=3.38±0.55 mg) was noted. When the 2 drugs were administered in combination, there was no additional behavioral improvement: the P50 values for the combination groups were 2.98±0.18 and 3.60±0.79 mg for the 5- and 60-minute ebselen treatment, respectively (Table 3). That the combination did not significantly increase P50 values compared with monotherapy suggests that a ceiling effect caused by the high dose of tPA and/or the short delay (5 minutes) between embolization and ebselen treatment may have occurred but does not exclude the possibility of a positive result if a lower dose of tPA and a longer delay (60 minutes) for ebselen treatment were used. To test this hypothesis, a suboptimal dose of tPA (0.9 mg/kg) that by itself did not significantly increase the P50 value (1.54±0.35 mg) was used in combination with ebselen (20 mg/kg) and given 60 minutes after embolization, which also did not significantly increase the P50 value (1.65±0.32 mg). A statistically significant increase (P<0.05) in the P50 value (3.52±0.73 mg) was observed with this combination (Table 3 and Figure 3), suggesting a synergistic effect of the drugs on behavioral improvement.
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RLCEM
Hemorrhage and Infarct Incidence
The 2 doses of tPA (0.9 and 3.3 mg/kg) used in the RSCEM experiments were evaluated for effects on hemorrhage rate in the RLCEM. Hemorrhage rate was 50% (5 of 10), 64% (9 of 14), and 76% (13 of 17) for the vehicle- and 0.9- and 3.3-mg/kg-tPAtreated groups, respectively.
| Discussion |
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In the present study, we assessed the pharmacological effects of ebselen, an anti-inflammatory antioxidant that mimics glutathione peroxidase activities,1 in the absence or presence of recanalization such as with tPA. The results in the RSCEM showed that ebselen significantly improved behavioral ratings scores after an embolic stroke, but only when administered relatively soon (5 minutes) after embolization. The observation that ebselen is neuroprotective in the RSCEM is consistent with earlier findings in rodent stroke models.6,2730 However, with the highest dose tested, ebselen did not significantly affect the P50 compared with controls, perhaps because of the detrimental effects mediated by its activity on many enzymes and proteins.1 Nevertheless, the neuroprotective properties of ebselen in the RSCEM are comparable to those of the spin-trap agent NXY-059 in the same model.9,16 Therefore, it appears that intervention at the level of oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species, nitrogen reactive species, and free radicals is an effective way to produce neuroprotection and significantly improve behavior in the RSCEM.
Delayed administration of ebselen in combination with a low dose of the thrombolytic tPA presented a superior pharmacological profile compared with either drug alone. The synergism between ebselen and tPA indicates that it may be possible to administer a lower dose of thrombolytic, thereby reducing complications associated with thrombolytic therapy (eg, hemorrhage21) while still providing maximal behavioral improvement. This is supported by the RLCEM studies showing that a low dose of tPA (0.9 mg/kg) increased hemorrhage rate by only 28% compared with the high dose (3.3 mg/kg), which increased the rate by 52%. Alternatively, ebselen may reduce reperfusion-induced injury caused by tPA and consequently protect affected neurons. Previous studies using rabbit embolic stroke models have shown that tPA effectively lyses blood clots and quickly restores cerebral reperfusion31 (reviewed elsewhere21).
The present preclinical data, together with the results from ebselen clinical trials, imply that ultimately the development of combination drug therapy may be necessary to reduce the devastating neurological and behavioral deficits of acute ischemic stroke. Because of the observed synergistic effects of ebselen with tPA, ebselen or other neuroprotective small-molecules like NXY-0599 may be prime candidates for combination therapy with tPA or second-generation thrombolytics like Tenecteplase or microplasmin.15,21 Future placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trials are needed to test the hypothesis that combination therapies will result in better outcomes for stroke patients.
| Conclusions |
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| Acknowledgments |
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Received December 11, 2002; revision received March 11, 2003; accepted April 9, 2003.
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