Stroke victims’ could soon be helped my ‘magnetic blood’ which pushes medication around

Injecting microscopic magnetic beads into the blood of stroke victims could transform treatment of the killer condition, which strikes 152,000 Britons each year.

The pioneering treatment, called magnetically enhanced diffusion, helps ‘push’ life-saving drugs through the circulatory system 30 times faster that they would normally travel.

One in five strokes – typically caused by a blood clot blocking a vessel in the brain and starving the area of oxygen – prove fatal. Half of all survivors are left disabled.

Pictured: A diagram shows how the magnetic beads help ‘push’ medication around the body in a pioneering new treatment for stroke victims

Timing of treatment is crucial as the longer it takes to break down the clot with a special blood-thinning drug, the greater the damage and chance of lasting disability.

Studies show that the thinning drug, alteplase, needs to be given within four hours of the onset of stroke symptoms for it to be effective. 

Injecting it into the brain is not an option as this direct approach would also be damaging.

Instead the procedure, known as thrombolysis, relies on the active compounds being delivered to the site of the blockage in the bloodstream. But the clot can reduce the speed of the circulation.

Dr Richard Perry a consultant neurologist and stroke specialist at University College Hospital, where the new treatment is being studied, said: ‘It’s like a busy motorway blocked by a crash, where the emergency services have difficulty getting through. The drugs can take some time to reach the clot.’

But by introducing tiny iron oxide beads, developed by US based company Pulse Therapeutics, research has shown that the effectiveness of the drugs is increased significantly. 

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The beads, which are smaller than a blood cell, are injected through a vein in the arm, immediately after the patient has been given alteplase, also injected into the arm.

A device containing a fast-rotating magnet is then placed next to the patient’s head and the magnetic force created helps propel the drugs along the blocked vessels to break down the life-threatening clot.

Once they have done their job, the beads are naturally absorbed then secreted.

An international study presented at the America Stroke Association conference showed that when given within three hours, 33 per cent of patients did not have significant disability afterwards, compared with 23 per cent of those who did not receive the therapy. 

However, even with clot-busting treatment, about six out of ten patients had significant disability.

Stroke is the third biggest cause of death in the UK, behind cancer and heart disease, affecting one person every five minutes.

High blood pressure is the most important risk factor, contributing to half of all cases.

The treatment is being studied at University College Hospital, pictured, in London, and could transform procedures for stroke patients

Sean Morris, CEO of Pulse Therapeutics, said: ‘Stroke is an enormous problem worldwide. Time counts in treating these patients because every minute, millions of neurons die. While the heart muscle can recover after a heart attack, these brain cells just die.’

Dr Perry added: ‘For most stroke patients, the only treatment that can reduce the disability from their stroke is thrombolysis. 

‘Although it is important to deliver this treatment to stroke patients where possible, most patients who receive the treatment into a vein do not derive a clear benefit, and if the stroke is caused by a blockage in a large artery the proportion is particularly low.

‘While directly pulling the clot out – thrombectomy – improves results considerably, there are very few centres where this treatment can be offered, and even in the UK most patients will not benefit from this .

‘One important reason for the low success rate of the intravenous clot-busting drug is likely to be poor penetration of the thrombolytic drug to the clot that needs to be dissolved.

‘The approach of using iron microbeads to stir the blood and improve access of the clot-busting drug to the clot is exciting and innovative and we are eager to test the therapy in stroke patients.’