Enoxaparin and/or Minocycline in Acute Stroke

Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether enoxaparin, minocycline, or both medications in combination may help in recovery from acute stroke. Enoxaparin (brand name Lovenox®) is a medication approved for use in humans to prevent and to treat blood clots in deep veins in certain specific medical situations. Minocycline (brand name Minocin®) is a tetracycline antibiotic approved to treat a number of bacterial infections in humans. The investigators are studying these medications in acute human stroke because they have each been separately shown to reduce the amount of injured brain tissue in rats made to have acute ischemic stroke experimentally. In a human trial comparing minocycline with placebo (a sugar pill) acute ischemic stroke patients who took minocycline had better recovery after 1 week, 1 month and 3 months than patients who took placebo.

Timeline

Start

2009-04

Primary completion

2009-12

Completion

2010-01

Publications

• Background Lampl Y, Boaz M, Gilad R, Lorberboym M, Dabby R, Rapoport A, Anca-Hershkowitz M, Sadeh M. Minocycline treatment in acute stroke: an open-label, evaluator-blinded study. Neurology. 2007 Oct 2;69(14):1404-10. doi: 10.1212/01.wnl.0000277487.04281.db.
• Background Mary V, Wahl F, Uzan A, Stutzmann JM. Enoxaparin in experimental stroke: neuroprotection and therapeutic window of opportunity. Stroke. 2001 Apr;32(4):993-9. doi: 10.1161/01.str.32.4.993.
• Background Quartermain D, Li Y, Jonas S. Enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin decreases infarct size and improves sensorimotor function in a rat model of focal cerebral ischemia. Neurosci Lett. 2000 Jul 14;288(2):155-8. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(00)01223-4.
• Background Quartermain D, Li YS, Jonas S. The low molecular weight heparin enoxaparin reduces infarct size in a rat model of temporary focal ischemia. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2003;16(4):346-55. doi: 10.1159/000072556.
• Background Xu L, Fagan SC, Waller JL, Edwards D, Borlongan CV, Zheng J, Hill WD, Feuerstein G, Hess DC. Low dose intravenous minocycline is neuroprotective after middle cerebral artery occlusion-reperfusion in rats. BMC Neurol. 2004 Apr 26;4:7. doi: 10.1186/1471-2377-4-7.
• Background Yrjanheikki J, Tikka T, Keinanen R, Goldsteins G, Chan PH, Koistinaho J. A tetracycline derivative, minocycline, reduces inflammation and protects against focal cerebral ischemia with a wide therapeutic window. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Nov 9;96(23):13496-500. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.23.13496.
• Background Liu Z, Fan Y, Won SJ, Neumann M, Hu D, Zhou L, Weinstein PR, Liu J. Chronic treatment with minocycline preserves adult new neurons and reduces functional impairment after focal cerebral ischemia. Stroke. 2007 Jan;38(1):146-52. doi: 10.1161/01.STR.0000251791.64910.cd. Epub 2006 Nov 22.

Drugs

Indications