Since I think too much about all things stroke related I came across nanoparticles and tried to envision what use they could be for stroke rehab.

They have several interesting abilities;

1. They can cross the blood-brain barrier

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16154222

2. They are already used to treat thrombi in parts of the body.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/vj1528n166147410/

3. They can be magnetically directed.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/health/4/magnetic_nanoparticles_remotely_control_neurons_and_animal_behavior/32320/

For our purposes they could be used to deliver a clot-busting drug directly to the clot using the magnetic properties to guide it. And since the amount could be sized to the clot size the risk of bleeding could be lowered significantly and the 3-4.5 hour window for tPA ignored.

The more interesting delivery mechanism would be to deliver neuronal growth factors, c3a peptides http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091123/C3a-peptide-regulates-the-generation-of-new-nerve-cells-in-the-brain-Study.aspx and NOGO receptors http://www.nature.com/nature/links/010118/010118-1.html to the penumbra and dead brain areas. Or deliver stem cells to the most likely place for them to survive and start working.

And after we deliver these growth factors or stem cells we can use connectomics to find out if they are working as we expected.

http://oc1dean.blogspot.com/2010/11/wiring-diagram-of-brain.html

This could be incredibly useful for those who need some magical properties in order to recover, not all of us are willing to spend the rest of our lives working on recovery. :yadayada: :2cents: