Neurological Disorder, Stroke: Relevance of Preclinical Studies

The neurological disorders and stroke represent the last century’s medical challenge. Despite increasing number of elderly people and the subsequent increase of neurological diseases, in socalled industrialized countries, we have no efficacious strategy to fight this plague. Probably, the more effective method to take on this challenge may be a rigorous prevention and principle risk factors (e.g. high-pressure, stress, obesity, smoke of tobacco and alcohol) elimination. On the other hand, further scientific research in this field could be very useful. This kind of research should be based on the use of animal models to improve current understanding of the pathophysiological features of these diseases and may yield important information on how to improve analysis of the “efficacy” of some possible molecules. Many authors, in a number of related medical fields, have evaluated the importance of preclinical research and they have written different review articles. However, in these models of disease, we often have some problem to acknowledge a precise human disorder. For instance, an animal model of stroke may use the focal cerebral ischemia. Actually, this model predicts the outcome of an ischemic insult but, it does not reproduce the general background pathophysiological that would cause an endogenous stroke. Therefore, we should accept the limitations inherent in these models and, follow early proof of efficacy studies in “young healthy animals” with more accurate studies in models incorporating age and co-morbidities. Presumably, translational problems may decrease with further improvement in preclinical study design and conduct. Recent preclinical studies underline the relevance of human cell-based approach to study stroke. Once again, these papers evidenced the crucial role of animal models. Moreover, these models were also appropriate to evaluate the effects of stem cell transplantation in Ischemic Stroke. It is the general opinion that the advantageous clinical translation of cell-based therapy requires the use, in preclinical research, of scientifically appropriate and of reproducible functional neurological result evaluations, which are adequately sensitive to investigate sensor motor asymmetry related to the site of ischemia.