Novel Treatment Provides New Hope for Relief of Disabling Stroke Pain - Institute of Neurological Recovery

CHICAGO, Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Two new publications provide hope for relief from disabling pain due to stroke, a chronic condition that afflicts hundreds of thousands of stroke survivors in the U.S.. The publications report rapid and sustained pain relief using a novel method of drug delivery, perispinal administration¹, to accomplish effective brain delivery and relief of central pain, without surgery.

Central pain, pain due to injury of neuronal tissue, was first described after stroke in 1906. Previously referred to as thalamic pain, now as central post-stroke pain, it is characteristically chronic, disabling and resistant to all treatment.

Data from the first publication is scheduled for presentation today at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago by Tracey Ignatowski, PhD, assistant professor at the University at Buffalo (UB). Ignatowski, with co-author Robert Spengler, PhD and her group of UB scientists, used perispinal administration of an antibody that blocks tumor necrosis factor (TNF) to treat central pain in a pre-clinical model. TNF is an immune-signaling molecule that amplifies inflammation and controls brain circuits. "Our current work demonstrates that treatments that selectively block brain-TNF reduce pain in animal models….Previously, brain delivery was thought to require brain surgery or a spinal tap….We have shown, for the first time, that effective pain relief in an animal model could be achieved by direct brain delivery accomplished with a simple peripheral (outside of the brain and spinal cord) [perispinal] injection …," Ignatowski stated.

The second publication², by Edward Tobinick, M.D., Director of the Institute of Neurological Recovery (INR), demonstrates the clinical significance of the UB scientists' findings. The new article and accompanying video document immediate resolution of chronic, previously intractable, stroke pain after a single perispinal injection of etanercept, another TNF blocker. "This novel treatment provides new hope for the many people who have survived stroke only to find themselves left with agonizing daily pain that does not respond to any treatment," said Dr. Tobinick.

More detailed information: INR website.

Contact: Institute of Neurological Recovery, [e-mail]     561.353.9707

¹ Perispinal administration involves drug delivery by superficial injection under the skin overlying, but not into, the spine. Dr. Tobinick holds patents for the perispinal method.
² Clin Drug Investig (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40261-019-00864-8

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