A research project led by the University of Coimbra (UC), the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and Stemlab (owner of Crioestaminal) will receive 150,000 euros to develop a new therapy for ischemic strokes using stem cells. With this research, the team aims to provide new answers to the constraints on access to treatments for this health problem.
Funded by the "la Caixa" Foundation - as part of the Promove competition, carried out in partnership with the Foundation for Science and Technology - the REPAIR project - Repair and Recovery in Ischemic Stroke: new cell therapy strategies will run for three years, "joining efforts between academia and industry for the use of cell therapy and its modeling by exposure to a hypoxic atmosphere, i.e. oxygen levels lower than those normally applied in laboratory conditions," explains Bruno Manadas, a researcher at the UC Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC-UC). Ischemic stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is reduced or interrupted, affecting the brain cells, which stop functioning normally due to a lack of oxygen and nutrients.
This new treatment being developed by the REPAIR team is based on the administration of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, or their secretome, in the post-acute phase of ischemic stroke (the phase following the critical period, when treatment should be implemented). These approaches have shown enormous therapeutic potential in various serious diseases in pre-clinical models and, in the case of ischemic stroke, they may be decisive for "the paracrine modulation of inflammatory processes and neuroprotection, crucial elements for reducing loss of capacity and accelerating the process of functional recovery", explains Bruno Manadas.
The REPAIR project team also includes Carlos Duarte, a researcher at CNC-UC and lecturer at the UC Faculty of Science and Technology; Graça Baltazar, a lecturer and researcher at UBI; and Carla Cardoso, head of Research and Development at Crioestaminal. The project also has the collaboration of the director of the Neurovascular Research Unit at the Complutense University of Madrid, Ignacio Lizasoain. Supported by the Promove Program of the "la Caixa" Foundation, in collaboration with BPI and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Catarina Ribeiro