Scientists from the research center Applied Medicine (CIMA) of the University of Navarra and the Hospital Clínico da Xerencia de Xestión Integrada de Santiago de Compostela have shown that an increase in a blood protein, prometaloprotease-10 (proMMP-10), indicates greater brain damage after stroke. Moreover, it predicts a worse functional prognosis at mid-term deadline. The work, published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, has received a special accredited specialization at the XXVI National congress of the Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis, held in Zaragoza.

Metalloproteases (MMPs) are a group of proteins that, in addition to many other functions, participate in tissue injury during stroke, and in neurovascular remodeling. "In a previous work we demonstrated that one of these proteins, proMMP-10, is upregulated in atherosclerosis. We then looked for its involvement in patients with acute ischemic stroke," explain Dr. José A. Rodríguez and Dr. Tomás Sobrino, researchers at CIMA and the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, respectively, and co-principal authors of work, which was carried out at partnership with Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

The study included patients with ischemic stroke who received thrombolytic treatment (to dissolve clots) and were compared with other patients with ischemic stroke who did not receive such treatment, and with asymptomatic subjects. The severity of the stroke was assessed, CT was used to diagnose development intracerebral hemorrhages and severe cerebral edema, and the concentration of proMMP-10 and other inflammatory markers was determined.

After a 3-month follow-up period of the patients, the researchers found that the concentration of proMMP-10 protein in patients with acute ischemic stroke was much higher than in healthy patients. "Increased levels of proMMP-10 are associated with a higher Issue of infarction, with the occurrence of severe cerebral edema, with greater early neurological deterioration (in the first 72 h) and with worse functional prognosis at 3 months, although it was not related to the occurrence of hemorrhage. Circulating levels of this protein were also associated with a marker and inflammatory agent, TNFα. Therefore, the increase in proMMP-10 after acute ischemic stroke may be a new marker of brain damage and poor functional prognosis."

The researchers will continue this line of work studying the molecular mechanisms that relate proMMP-10 to ischemic stroke, to find out if this protein can participate in the processes of damage and recovery after stroke, one of the main causes of mortality and disability in our environment.