Infarct reduction in rats following intraventricular administration of either tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) or its non-protease mutant S478A-tPA.

In addition to its thrombolytic effect, human recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) may have parenchymal effects such as protease-dependent neurotoxic and protease-independent neuroprotective effects. The purpose of this study was to examine parenchymal effects of tPA and its non-protease mutant S478A-tPA in permanent focal cerebral ischemia in rats. However, before doing in vivo experiments, effects of tPA and S478A-tPA on zinc or NMDA toxicity were first studied in cortical cultures. Like tPA, which has protease-independent cytoprotective effects, the non-protease mutant S478A-tPA blocked zinc toxicity in cortical cell cultures, but did not affect calcium-mediated NMDA toxicity. Then, effects of tPA and S478A-tPA on infarcts induced by permanent occlusion of middle cerebral artery (MCA) were investigated. tPA and S478A-tPA were administered into the cerebral ventricle 15 min or 1 h after MCA occlusion. Both tPA and its non-protease mutant S478A-tPA, when given 15 min after ischemia, substantially reduced infarcts and ameliorated motor deficits in the MCA occlusion model of focal cerebral ischemia. However, when administered 1 h after MCA occlusion, neither showed protective effects. The protective effects of tPA or S478A-tPA remained unchanged at 7 days after MCA occlusion. Indicating that the native protein conformation is necessary for the protective effect of tPA and S478A-tPA, heat-denatured tPA did not exhibit any protective effect. Since S478A-tPA lacks protease activity, which has been implicated in causing cerebral hemorrhage or aggravating excitotoxicity, its parenchymal neuroprotective effect may be useful in treatment of ischemic stroke.