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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
A Preclinical Model to Assess Brain Recovery After Acute Stroke in Rats
Published on: November 6, 2019
Delayed Administration of Tat-HA-NR2B9c Promotes Recovery After Stroke in Rats
Hai-Hui Zhou1, Ying Tang1, Xin-Yong Zhang1
1From the Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy (H.-H.Z., Y.T., X.-Y.Z., C.-X.L., L.-Y.G., H.-Y.W., L.C., D.-Y.Z.), Institution of Stem Cells and Neuroregeneration (C.-X.L., H.-Y.W., D.-Y.Z.), Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Background And Purpose:
Previous studies reported that Tat-NR2B9c, a peptide disrupting the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-postsynaptic density protein-95 interaction, reduced ischemic damage in the acute phase after stroke. However, its effect in the subacute phase is unknown. The aim of this study is to determine whether disrupting the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-postsynaptic density protein-95 interaction in the subacute phase promotes recovery after stroke.
Methods:
Studies were performed on Sprague-Dawley rats or nNOS(-/-) mice, and experimental ischemic stroke was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Animals were treated with drugs starting at day 4 after ischemia. Sensorimotor functions and spatial learning and memory ability were assessed after drug treatment. Then, rats were euthanized for morphological observation and biochemical tests.
Results:
Disrupting the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-postsynaptic density protein-95 interaction with Tat-HA-NR2B9c significantly ameliorated the ischemia-induced impairments of spatial memory and sensorimotor functions in rats during subacute stage but did not improve stroke outcome in nNOS(-/-) mice. Consistent with the functional recovery, Tat-HA-NR2B9c substantially increased neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus and dendritic spine density of mature neurons in the motor cortex of rats, meanwhile, reversed the ischemia-induced formation of S-nitrosylation-cyclin-dependent kinase 5 and increased cyclin-dependent kinase 5 activity in ipsilateral hippocampus. However, directly blocking N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors with MK-801 or Ro 25-6981 did not show the beneficial effects above.
Conclusions:
Dissociating N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor-postsynaptic density protein-95 coupling by Tat-HA-NR2B9c in the subacute phase after stroke promotes functional recovery, probably because of that it increases neurogenesis and dendritic spine density of mature neurons via regulating cyclin-dependent kinase 5 in the ischemic brain.
