Absence of Microbleeds Reduces the Risk for Recurrent Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Anti-DEspR antibody treatment improves survival and reduces neurologic deficits in a hypertensive, spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (hsICH) rat model

Progressive secondary brain injury-induced by dysregulated neuroinflammation in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH)-underlies high sICH-mortality and remains without FDA-approved pharmacotherapy. Clinical insight that hematoma-directed interventions do not improve mortality prioritizes resolving acute secondary brain injury in sICH. As neutrophils are implicated in sICH secondary brain injury, we tested whether inhibition of a rogue neutrophil-subset expressing the dual endothelin-1/signal peptide receptor (DEspR) and associated with secondary tissue injury, DEspR+ CD11b+ immunotype, will attenuate mortality in a hypertensive-sICH (hsICH) rat model. We confirmed sICH-related deaths in hsICH-rats by T2*-weighted 9.4 T MRI and DEspR+ neutrophils in hsICH-rat brain perihematomal areas by immunostaining. At acute sICH, anti-DEspR muIgG1-antibody, mu10a3, treatment increased median survival in hsICH rats vs controls (p < 0.0001). In pre-stroke sICH, weekly 10a3-treatment did not predispose to infection and delayed sICH-onset vs controls (p < 0.0001). As potential sICH-therapeutic, we tested humanized anti-DEspR IgG4^S228P-mAb, hu6g8. In vitro, hu6g8 reversed delayed-apoptosis in DEspR+ CD11b+ neutrophils. In vivo, hu6g8 increased median survival and reduced neurologic symptoms in male/female hsICH-rats vs controls (p < 0.0001). Altogether, preclinical efficacy of inhibition of DEspR+ CD11b+ neutrophils in acute sICH-without infection complications, supports the potential of anti-DEspR therapy in sICH. Data provide basis for clinical study of DEspR+ CD11b+ neutrophil-subset in sICH patients.

Exploring the Impact of Cerebral Microbleeds on Stroke Management

Stroke constitutes a major cause of functional disability and mortality, with increasing prevalence. Thus, the timely and accurate prognosis of stroke outcomes based on clinical or radiological markers is vital for both physicians and stroke survivors. Among radiological markers, cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) constitute markers of blood leakage from pathologically fragile small vessels. In the present review, we evaluated whether CMBs affect ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke outcomes and explored the fundamental question of whether CMBs may shift the risk-benefit balance away from reperfusion therapy or antithrombotic use in acute ischemic stroke patients. A literature review of two databases (MEDLINE and Scopus) was conducted to identify all the relevant studies published between 1 January 2012 and 9 November 2022. Only full-text articles published in the English language were included. Forty-one articles were traced and included in the present review. Our findings highlight the utility of CMB assessments, not only in the prognostication of hemorrhagic complications of reperfusion therapy, but also in forecasting hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke patients' functional outcomes, thus indicating that a biomarker-based approach may aid in the provision of counseling for patients and families, improve the selection of more appropriate medical therapies, and contribute to a more accurate choice of patients for reperfusion therapy.

Clinical and Prognostic Characteristics of Recurrent Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Contrast to First-Ever ICH

This study aimed to compare clinical and prognostic characteristics between recurrent and first-ever ICH. Four thousand twelve patients entered the study, and 64% of them were male. The median age is 62 years (interquartile range, 55–71). Among them, 3,750 (93.5%) patients had no experience of previous ICH, and 262 (6.5%) patients were considered as recurrent ICH. We compared demographic data, baseline clinical characteristics, imaging information, hematological parameters, and clinical outcomes between recurrent and first-ever ICH. We found that recurrent ICH was significantly associated with older age, more frequent history of ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, while patients with recurrent ICH had previously received more antihypertensive therapy, and showed lower admission blood pressure (median, 160 vs. 167 mmHg) and higher baseline of National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score (median, 10 vs. 9). We also demonstrated that recurrent ICH was an independent risk factor of 3-month function dependence after adjusting for many potentially competitive risk factors.