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Ischemic stroke, caused by a blood clot in the brain that deprives brain cells of vital oxygen and glucose, sets off a race against time to limit brain damage and save the patient's life. Immediately after the onset of initial symptoms, such as numbness, confusion, dizziness, severe headache with no known cause or difficulty speaking, seeing or walking, victims should be rushed to a specialized hospital stroke center.
But the devastating disease can be treated – saving lives and reducing paralysis and disability. For over a decade, the drug tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) has been the only stroke-treatment drug available. It has saved the lives of many stroke victims who were able to reach a hospital capable of treating them in time. However, tPA has major limitations as it can cause dangerous hemorrhaging in the brain, may be neurotoxic and is effective only within three hours of the stroke symptoms’ initial appearance.
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But Thombotech Ltd., a preclinical-stage Israeli biopharmaceutical company is working to improve on tPA. Following years of meticulous research in the field by Prof. Abd al-Roof Higazi at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, the company has the potential to become a world leader in “melting” thromboses (clots) in the body. Prof. Higazi, the company’s scientific founder, has developed a very promising compound, the THR-18, meant to be administered together with tPA.
The new experimental drug is a thrombolytic modulator designed to extend the therapeutic time window for the effective use of tPA and minimize the adverse side effects associated with tPA therapy. The THR-18, Thrombotech's first lead compound, is a peptide derived from Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). When co-administered with tPA, THR-18 has been shown in a variety of animal studies to improve significantly both tPA’s efficacy and safety profile.
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THR-18 (1mg/kg) administered together
with tPA;
thromboembolic model
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Decreasing side effects – Diminished bleeding into the
brain
as a result
of tPA administration
Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH):
bleeding into the brain
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