The active agent in cough syrups could be used to unclog blocked arteries during a stroke.
Each year, more than 130,000 French people are victims of a cerebrovascular accident (AVC), which is the first cause of acquired disability, in adults, and the second cause of death, with 10% of deaths.
In most cases, these accidents are due to a blood clot obstructing the flow of blood to the brain. Poorly or more irrigated, brain cells die, causing neurological damage.
A team of researchers from Inserm and the University of Caen have discovered that a very common drug could dissolve these clots: they are cough syrups!
Break the clots
Mucomyst, Exomuc, Fluimucil… These commonly used drugs contain N-acetylcysteine. It makes it possible to thin the bronchial secretions and to promote expectoration, by a simple mode of action.
Mucus mainly contains mucin proteins that make molecular bonds between them, which gives it its viscosity. N-acetylcysteine breaks these bonds, making the mucus more fluid and easier to expectorate.
In blood clots that cause thrombosis (the blockage of blood vessels), similar bonds are formed. Here, mucin is replaced by blood platelets, a protein of which, von Willebrand factor, causes aggregation.
An upcoming clinical trial
Researchers have shown that intravenous injection of N-acetylcysteine can act on this factor, and thus limit the formation of clots resistant to conventional approaches. Combined with other treatments, it also accelerates the dissolution and limits the formation of new clots. And all this without increasing the risk of bleeding.
The results of the Caen team, published in the journal Circulation, were obtained in mice. But the effectiveness of cough syrups could quickly be tested in humans. “N-acetylcysteine is a low-cost treatment, already used worldwide as a cough medicine,” the researchers say. The demonstration of its thrombolytic effects could have very wide applications for the management of patients with ischemic stroke or myocardial infarction. We want to work in this direction and start a clinical trial as quickly as possible. “
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