Nitrone spin on cerebral ischemia.

Clinical trials with radical scavenging antioxidants have shown little or no benefit in the treatment of ischemic stroke. The spin trap nitrones covalently bind with short-lived reactive radicals to inactivate them for longer than the conventional scavenging antioxidants. One of these agents, NXY-059, is effective in animal models of cerebral ischemia, and is in phase III clinical trials for ischemic stroke by AstraZeneca, under license from Renovis. Second-generation nitrones (azulenyl nitrones) have also been described and shown to be neuroprotective in animal models. Thus, at last, it seems that antioxidants that are potent enough to have considerable potential for the treatment of cerebral ischemia are in development.