New research published in journal Hypertension shows that vaccine called S100A9 may be able to replace oral blood thinners to reduce the risk of secondary strokes in patients with recent ischemic stroke.
Japanese researchers successfully tested an experimental vaccine in mice and found that it provided protection against blood clots for more than two months without increasing the risk of bleeding or causing an autoimmune response.
The vaccine, S100A9, inhibits blood clot formation and, during the study, protected the arteries of treated mice from forming new clots for more than two months, and additionally, worked as well as the oral blood thinner clopidogrel in a major artery, according to Hironori Nakagami, M.D., Ph.D., study co-author and professor at Osaka University, in Japan.
“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,” Nakagami said.
Citation: Tomohiro Kawano, M.D.; Munehisa Shimamura, M.D., Ph.D.; Tatsuya Iso, M.D., Ph.D.; Hiroshi Koriyama, M.D., Ph.D.; Shuko Takeda; Tsutomu Sasaki, M.D., Ph.D.; Manabu Sakaguchi, M.D., Ph.D.; Ryuichi Morishita, M.D., Ph.D.; and Hideki Mochizuki, M.D., Ph.D.
https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.118.022837
Medical News Observer 
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