A Promising New Stroke Treatment Is On His Mind

Director of UGA’s Regenerative Bioscience Center, Steven Stice, heads up first-of-its-kind cell therapy targeting brain inflammation caused by stroke

A new therapeutic for stroke based on University of Georgia research will soon enter clinical trials.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the new drug, known as AB126, to enter a Phase 1b/2a clinical trial, which is expected to begin in the first half of 2024. This is the first stage of the trial and will test the safety and efficacy of the therapeutic in ischemic stroke patients.

Ischemic strokes are caused by clots that reduce or block blood flow to brain tissue, preventing the brain from getting adequate oxygen. These strokes are a leading cause of long-term disability and mortality worldwide.

Image of Dr. Steven Stice indoors with a white coat on looking through glass.

“Our drug acts differently than current treatments in that it’s not removing the clot; it’s reducing the inflammation in the brain caused by the stroke,” said Steven Stice ,director of UGA’s Regenerative Bioscience Center and co-founder of Aruna Bio, the company behind the new treatment.

When someone has a stroke, their brain cells start dying, explains Stice, who is also a professor in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. As those cells die, they release damaging particles that cause extensive inflammation.

“What our product does is mop up those damaging particles,” Stice said. By doing that, the therapeutic also prevents other brain cells from dying due to inflammation.

While the brain can heal minor injuries on its own, the medication amps up the body’s ability to clean up the mess caused by the stroke by immediately reducing inflammation and ultimately replacing lost neurons as well.

New treatment is first neural stem cell therapy to target the nervous system

The drug is the first of its kind to be used in the nervous system. Produced from neural stem cells, the therapeutic is incredibly small, which enables it to be given through a patient’s IV. The treatment then crosses from the blood into the brain, directly targeting those areas affected by the stroke.

Stice and his colleagues are also currently exploring the efficacy of the drug in treating
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is caused by
aggressive inflammation in the nervous system, which causes progressive muscle weakness. There is no cure for the condition, and it’s almost always fatal.

Animal studies are promising in this application and suggest the drug is effective in reducing inflammation caused by the condition.

The researchers are also exploring the ability to administer the drug through a nasal spray, which would be a game changer for chronic inflammation-based diseases such as Alzheimer’s,Parkinson’s and traumatic brain injury.

The work that Steven Stice and his team are doing is just one aspect of the University of Georgia’s commitment to overcoming health challenges. Through comprehensive research taking place across several colleges on campus, we will continue to discover new treatments to
improve lives.