ENDOVASCULAR & MOBILE STROKE PROGRAM OF EXCELLENCE NEWS

New and exciting research is being done by our stroke researchers! The manuscript, entitled “Rapid Activation of Neuroinflammation in Stroke: Plasma and Extracellular Vesicles Obtained on a Mobile Stroke Unit” has been accepted for publication in Stroke. The authors on this manuscript include Michael Graner, PhD; Robert Neumann, MD, PhD, Aurélie Ledreux, MS, PhD and principal investigator, Robert Kowalski, MD, MS.

The Neurosurgery department’s work on mobile stroke biomarkers was presented on Feb. 8, 2022 at the International Stroke Conference in Dallas. That presentation was entitled: “Ultra-early Activation of Neuroinflammatory Cascade Following Acute Stroke: Plasma and Extracellular Vesicle Biomarkers from a Mobile Stroke Unit.”

Dr. Kowalski is now in advanced discussions with a biotech firm in Boston (Bluejay Diagnostics) to begin a study of real-time, point-of-care measurement of IL-6 taken from the mobile stroke unit (while the stroke is actively underway). Bluejay has developed a device that gives an IL-6 level in 20 minutes from a drop (~150 microliters) of whole blood. This will provide data for the tool that the team has developed to use IL-6 levels to estimate the time of stroke onset when this is not known. The Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston and San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco are collaborators on this study.

CU Innovations has applied for a patent for this newly developed technology and is in discussions with Bluejay. The tool is conceptually called the “Colorado Stroke Onset Index.” It is an algorithm that can estimate the time when a stroke occurs based on a single blood draw. There are approximately 800,000 new strokes in the U.S. each year (12 million worldwide) and in about 25% of these, or approximately 200,000 in the U.S., the time of stroke onset is unknown, possibly because it occurred during sleep, the patient is found in a comatose state, etc. The primary medical treatment for acute ischemic stroke, tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) must be administered within 4.5 hours of stroke onset. So, unfortunately, those patients with an unknown time of stroke onset frequently are unable to be treated with tPA.

Our stroke onset index is designed to address this need. Worldwide, the number of patients with stroke of unknown onset is about 3 million per year

Many of our mobile stroke biomarkers study investigators are members of the Pre-hospital Stroke Treatment Organization (PRESTO). The newsletter of the organization “Mobile Stroke Unit News” is based here at the University of Colorado, Department of Neurosurgery. Robert Kowalski is its Editor in Chief. The most recent issue was just published in December.