Japanese researchers have tested a vaccine in mice that may protect people who had a stroke against blood clots for more than two months without increasing the risk of bleeding.
The study published on Monday in the American Heart Association’s journal, Hypertension, reported on the experimental vaccine that may one day replace oral blood thinners to reduce the risk of secondary strokes caused by blood clots.
Also, the vaccine called S100A9 caused no autoimmune response, which meant that the mice’s immune system did not perceive the vaccine as an “intruder” that needed to be attacked.
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People, who have had a stroke caused by a blood clot (ischemic strokes) often, need to take medications that make their blood less likely to clot, which helps prevent another stroke.
The vaccine worked as well as the oral blood thinner clopidogrel in a major artery, said Hironori Nakagami, the study’s co-author and professor at Osaka University.
“Many stroke patients don’t take their blood thinning drugs as prescribed, which makes it more likely they will have another stroke.
“This vaccine might one day help solve this issue since it would only need to be injected periodically.
“There are differences between mice and humans in how the vaccine will be recognised by the immune system.
“We should be able to overcome such problems and believe this vaccine provides a very promising strategy in secondary prevention of stroke,” said Nakagami.