ABSTRACT
Repositioning existing drugs will open new avenues for the development of effective therapeutic strategies for ischemic stroke. This chapter discusses the modulation of the immune response that crucially contributes to both the early and late development of ischemic brain damage has been considered a promising strategy. All the stroke-specific profiles reported to date have demonstrated that most of the genes modulated in the acute phase after ischemic stroke in the blood are implicated in the regulation of the innate immune system. In particular, genomic profiling studies of peripheral blood from ischemic stroke patients have highlighted that the immune system plays a crucial role in the progression of cerebral ischemia. Drug repositioning has an enormous significance in ischemic stroke where virtually all the neuroprotective drugs tested to date have failed to translate into the clinical setting because of excessive toxicity or lack of efficacy in patients.
