Coffee and alcohol cocktail could cut stroke damage

April 21, 2003

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_769341.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.medicalbreakthroughs

A coffee and alcohol cocktail that could prevent brain damage caused by strokes has passed its first patient test.

Researchers carried out a small pilot trial which showed that the experimental treatment is safe.

The success paves the way for larger patient trials which it is hoped will repeat the results seen in animals.

Previous work has demonstrated that caffeinol - a combination of caffeine and ethanol - can reduce the amount of brain damage that occurs after a stroke.

A study in rats showed that damage was reduced by 80% when caffeinol was administered within three hours of an artery supplying blood to the brain being blocked.

The drug, which is injected into the blood stream, not drunk, delivers the potency of two cups of strong coffee and an alcoholic drink.

Professor James Grotta and a team from the University of Texas in Houston, USA, gave caffeinol to a small group of 23 stroke patients with an average age of 71.

He said: "Our goal was to see if we could safely achieve the same blood levels of caffeinol that we achieved in our animal studies.

"We discovered that we could use even lower doses than we used in the animal studies and achieve the blood levels that were neuroprotective in animals."

Caffeinol could also be safely administered to patients receiving a clot-busting treatment, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).

Eight patients were given both caffeinol and tPA. One patient with a very severe stroke suffered a brain haemorrhage, but this was not related to caffeinol.

The findings were reported today in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Story filed: 22:34 Thursday 10th April 2003