Clinical Trial of DBS for Stroke Recovery Garners NIH BRAIN Grant (Video)

Cleveland Clinic researchers have received a nearly $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support their planned first-in-human clinical trial testing deep brain stimulation (DBS) as rehabilitative therapy for stroke survivors.

The study will examine a novel strategy — stimulation of the dentatothalamocortical pathway to enhance excitability and plasticity in spared cerebral cortical regions — with the aim of promoting recovery of motor function.

As reported previously, the FDA granted approval earlier this year to proceed with the clinical trial, which builds on more than a decade of Cleveland Clinic preclinical research. The grant, part of the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, will fund the study and help obtain valuable data for the design of future neurological devices.

In this three-minute video, lead investigator and Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute Chairman Andre Machado, MD, PhD, explains the essentials of the trial, which patients are candidates, and how DBS for stroke recovery differs from neuromodulation for movement disorders.

“Our primary hypothesis is that by applying DBS to the connections between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, we can facilitate the plasticity that occurs in the cortex around the stroke and thereby promote recovery of function beyond what physical therapy alone can do,” Dr. Machado says. “We need more and better options to help the many patients who remain chronically disabled after a stroke.”

For insights on the underlying science behind the trial, watch co-investigator Kenneth Baker, PhD, assistant staff in Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Neurosciences, speak to some of the scientific implications of the study’s attempt to stimulate the brain’s dentatothalamocortical pathway to restore lost motor function in this video. He also explains how Cleveland Clinic’s recent NIH BRAIN grant award is supporting the team’s work.