Duke Testing Site for Stroke Preclinical Assessment Network

Abstract Stroke is a severe medical condition that affects about 800,000 in the United States every year, and 87% of these strokes are ischemic. Recent advances in mechanical thrombectomy have substantially increased the number of acute ischemic stroke patients who are eligible for reperfusion therapy. To further improve stroke outcome, there is an urgent need to identify effective cerebroprotective interventions as adjunct treatments to reperfusion therapy after ischemic stroke. Indeed, the NINDS Stroke Preclinical Assessment Network (SPAN) has called for highly promising cerebroprotective interventions to be simultaneously tested in multi-site preclinical settings before advancing to clinical trials. The goal of this application is to participate in SPAN as a testing laboratory to assess the efficacy of interventions selected by SPAN to improve long-term stroke outcome. As a preclinical testing site, we will perform our assessments in transient ischemic stroke animals in a controlled, randomized, and blinded fashion, following the standard protocols developed with NINDS and the SPAN Coordinating Center (CC). We have assembled a strong Duke University investigative team from 4 departments that includes basic and clinical stroke scientists, neurologists, neuroradiologists, behavior scientists, and biostatisticians, and that has had an excellent preclinical stroke research record for over 2 decades. The team has well established stroke models that meet the needs of long-term preclinical testing with consideration for relevant biological variables such as sex and age, as well as ischemic stroke-related comorbidities. Multiple quantitative behavioral tests and advanced MRI imaging are in place to support clinically relevant outcome assessments. Collectively, this team has the experience, knowledge, skills, and equipment required to join SPAN as a well-qualified testing site. The Duke site also has a scientific, administrative, and institutional commitment to collaborate with the CC, other sites, and intervention providers for in-parallel testing of up to 8 cerebroprotective interventions and timely data sharing and reporting. We expect to find that the most promising interventions, identified by SPAN, can be advanced into clinical trials, and bring hope to stroke patients.