Research

Overview

Our Division is involved in research in acute management, acute interventions, prevention of post-stroke cognitive decline and dementia, and translational stroke studies.

Our Research

Clinical

The Nottingham Stroke Trials Unit runs a number of large multi-centre phase 3 clinical trials, both in the UK and Internationally. In addition, we also run a number of smaller phase II clinical trial, as well as performing systematic reviews and meta-analysis. (List of clinical stroke trials.)

Clinical Pharmacology/Therapeutics

Types of studies

Phase I trials in volunteers
Phase II and phase III trials in acute stroke, stroke recovery and stroke prevention
Meta-analysis using both summary and individual patient data
Data (safety) monitoring committees

Acute Management

Current trials

Efficacy of Nitric Oxide in Stroke trial (ENOS )
Blood pressure in Acute Stroke Collaboration (BASC)
Triple Antiplatelets for Reducing Dependency after Ischaemic Stroke (TARDIS)
A randomised controlled trial of Tranexamic acid in Intracerebral Haemorrhage 2 (TICH-2 )
Rapid Intervention with Glyceryl trinitrate in Hypertensive stroke Trial (RIGHT)
UK Co-ordinators EuroHYP-1 - A European, multicentre, randomised, phase III, clinical trial of hypothermia plus medical treatment versus best medical treatment alone for acute ischaemic stroke

Prevention and Recovery

Current trials

Prevention of post-stroke cognitive decline and dementia (PODCAST)
Stem cell Trial of recovery EnhanceMent after Stroke 3 (STEMS-3)

Systematic reviews - Cochrane Collaboration

Acute interventions
Secondary prevention
Recovery and rehabilitation

Translational

Translational studies in the Division focus on the elucidation of the mechanisms that may account for the breakdown and recovery of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with an aim to discover novel therapeutic mediators that can effectively prevent or reverse the formation of brain oedema, the main cause of death within the first week after an ischaemic stroke.

Translational stroke studies

Types of studies

Brain oedema: small GTP-binding protein RhoA and its downstream effectors; ROCK, MLC
Hyperglycaemia-evoked BBB dysfunction: protein kinase C family and its specific isoforms
Ischaemic injury and BBB integrity: matrix metalloproteases (MMP-2, MMP-9)
BBB pathophysiology: plasminogen-plasmin system components; uPA, uPAR, tPA and PA-1
Neuroinflammation: cytokines and chemokines
Therapeutic role of hypothermia: cytokines, cytoskeleton and tight junctional complexes
Oxidative stress and BBB breakdown: free radicals, NO, NOSs, SODs, catalase, GPx
Clinical biomarkers: for effective diagnosis and differentiation of stroke subtypes

Collaborative Links

We maintain strong collaborative links with key groups both within the University of Nottingham and outside with colleagues in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

Research Training

The Division offers a number of research training opportunities to undergraduates and postgraduates in both clinical and laboratory research.

Currently there are two BMedSci students and seven PhD students (doing both clinical and laboratory-based projects). The Division has had five PhD graduates over recent years.

Find out more about our undergraduate and postgraduate research training opportunities.

Impact

Our research impact is reflected in the following:

A large number of publications in leading peer-reviewed journals. (To find out more, please see the lists of publications under individual researchers' profiles.)
Research Grants - The Division of Stroke has recently been awarded two large funding grants from NIHR HTA to fund the international clinical trials TARDIS and TICH-2.

Division of Stroke

University of Nottingham
Clinical Sciences Building
City Hospital Campus
Hucknall Road
Nottingham
NG5 1PB

telephone: +44 (0)115 82 31765
fax: +44 (0)115 82 31767
email: Susan.Blencowe@nottingham.ac.uk