Dr. Patrick Lyden is leading a National Institutes of Health study about strokes. (photo courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)

Cedars-Sinai will serve as the coordinating center for a multicenter stroke research program that will be the first of its kind in the U.S. Dubbed the Stroke Preclinical Assessment Network, the National Institutes of Health-funded program under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Lyden, professor of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai, will assess the effectiveness of six potential therapies for stroke.

The researchers also are charged with investigating whether applying higher standards of rigor to preclinical research – that is, phases of medical research that take place before therapies are tested in humans – could produce results that are more likely to succeed in human clinical trials.

“We will tackle the most important question today in treating strokes: How do we find new, potentially effective treatments efficiently and effectively?” Lyden said.

Current treatments aim to remove stroke-causing blood clots either by dissolving them or extracting them surgically. While both treatments help patients recover, preclinical studies in laboratory mice and rats have suggested that there are several therapies that could potentially help to protect the brain during these treatments and help patients recover better. However, it is not known whether any of these therapies could work in humans.

“While we’ve made lot of progress in helping patients recover from ischemic strokes, studies in the lab suggest we can do more,” Lyden said. “Over the years, several labs have shown that therapies used for other diseases could also be repurposed to help patients recover from an ischemic stroke attack.”

Recent studies have shown that promising preclinical ideas often cannot be replicated in other labs or fail when researchers try to test them or translate them into treatments for humans. To address these concerns, the NIH has established a project called Rigor and Reproducibility to establish standards for publishing preclinical research results more like those used for human clinical trials.

While therapies that meet these standards aren’t guaranteed to work in humans, Lyden said that researchers think this technique may help them find possible treatments more efficiently.

Dr. Nancy L. Sicotte, chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurology, said the ultimate goal is to translate the results of these studies into therapies that can help patients recover faster.

“At Cedars-Sinai, we’re committed to looking for ways to improve patient care,” Sicotte said. “This program will look beyond the current standard of care to see if we can find ways to help patients get back to normal after a stroke.”

Cedars-Sinai is located at 8700 Beverly Blvd. For information, visit cedars-sinai.org.