Interventions in Ischemic Stroke Targeting Microglial Activation

Abstract

Ischemic stroke is one of the biggest health concerns nowadays, leading to nonnegligible disability and mortality in its patients. During its pathological development, resident microglia in the central nervous system play a significant role to repair the damage, but may also expand the lesion because of the excessive microglial activation. As a result, microglial activation is considered a potential therapeutic target for ischemic stroke. Since microglia polarized into different phenotypes ranging from M1 to M2 display proinflammatory and neuroprotective functions, regulation of the morpho-functional change of microglia became a further way of intervention in ischemic stroke. This review qualitatively analyses drugs for ischemic stroke that were studied by credible research in the recent ten years in terms of experimental methods, applied animal models, and potential signaling pathways, so as to provide clues for future studies on the fine regulation of microglial activation to treat ischemic stroke.