Two new studies of the potential neuroprotective agent nerinetide (NoNO Inc) for patients with acute ischemic stroke have shown conflicting but intriguing results.
While the phase 3 ESCAPE-NEXT trial failed to show a benefit of nerinetide for stroke patients undergoing endovascular therapy, when the drug was given an average of 4 to 5 hours after stroke onset, the smaller FRONTIER study showed apparent impressive effects on functional outcomes with the drug when given in a prehospital setting to patients with suspected stroke with an average treatment time of around 1 hour from symptom onset.
Michael Hill, MD, professor of neurology at the University of Calgary, Canada, lead investigator of the ESCAPE-NEXT trial, acknowledged that the results of this trial were disappointing, but he said the FRONTIER results were very encouraging and suggested this agent needs to be given as early as possible.
"This is extremely interesting and intriguing from a scientific view. We feel we are on the verge of uncovering something that might lead to the holy grail of cytoprotection in stroke," he told t heheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
"All of the experimental data with nerinetide support the idea that early treatment is important to see a large effect.
