New Route To Stroke Therapy Could Protect Vulnerable Neurons..[MORE]: "In the neurological train wreck that is stroke, researchers have traced the major cause of the death of brain cells due to artery blockage or bleeding in the brain. They know that the resulting oxygen loss, or ischemia, unleashes a cascade of the brain chemical glutamate, which in turn triggers receptors on the surface of brain cells to snap open, allowing a lethal flood of calcium into the cells. Such receptors are pore-like proteins on the neuronal surface.

However, clinical trials of drugs to keep these receptors closed to calcium have largely failed, in large part because they disrupt normal function of the channels in otherwise unaffected brain areas.

Now, however, researchers have discovered the distinct molecular malfunction that renders some neurons particularly vulnerable to stroke damage. Those vulnerable are neurons are in the hippocampus, the brain region central to learning and memory. The researchers' findings, they say, could lead to drugs targeted to correct this specific malfunction, without compromising other brain cells........."