Multilaboratory, Blinded, Randomized Trial of Five Cerebroprotectants in Ischemic Stroke.

GSK2256294, an inhibitor of sEH, produced an odds ratio for benefit of 1.28 (95% CI 0.99–1.65; P <0.05) in a multilaboratory ischemic stroke rodent trial.

• Why it matters: Preclinical optimism can lead to clinical trial failures and skepticism, so the field needs more rigorous, blinded, multicenter testing to reduce false-positive candidates.
• What they did: Using the SPAN network, six laboratories tested five cerebroprotectants with blinded treatment preparation, randomized allocation, prespecified sample sizes, and blinded behavioral end-point assessment across multiple rodent models.
• The result: Across 1768 rodents (441 young healthy mice, 444 aging mice, 450 obesity-induced hyperglycemia/metabolic syndrome mice, and 433 spontaneously hypertensive rats), no candidate met the prespecified efficacy boundary, but GSK2256294’s result supports further scrutiny.

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