World Stroke Day
World Stroke Day has been observed annually on October 29 since its establishment in 2006. Each year, it serves as a vital platform to raise public awareness of stroke symptoms, prevention strategies, available treatments, and support for those affected.
It also provides an important opportunity to promote research aimed at advancing stroke care.
This focus is critically important, as the global incidence of stroke continues to rise. Current estimates suggest that approximately one in four adults over the age of 25 will experience a stroke in their lifetime. To put this into perspective, in a typical family of four, one member is likely to be affected—an unsettling reality with profound implications for the quality of life of all family members.
The sudden obstruction of blood flow in a brain artery can be fatal or result in life-long disability.
Preclinical research, together with clinical studies, remains indispensable for advancing stroke care. These combined efforts have led to major therapeutic breakthroughs, most notably thrombolysis, which dissolves blood clots occluding cerebral arteries, and thrombectomy, a procedure that mechanically removes the clot. Despite their proven efficacy, these interventions are limited to a therapeutic window of up to 24 hours following stroke onset. This limitation underscores the urgent need for continued research to develop effective treatments for patients who are ineligible for these time-dependent therapies. Moreover, even when reopening an obstructed cerebral artery is technically successful, adequate blood flow in the smaller downstream microvessels is often not restored. The mechanisms underlying this paradoxical phenomenon remain poorly understood and are the subject of ongoing intensive investigation.
Stroke also activates immune cells within the brain and recruits additional immune cells from the bloodstream. As with any immune response, this process is initially protective. However, when excessive or prolonged, it can cause severe collateral damage to brain tissue. Understanding how to selectively suppress the harmful aspects of post-stroke inflammation, while preserving protective immune functions is a significant challenge, and has become a major research objective. In addition to appreciating brain-immune interactions, growing scientific attention is also being directed toward the brain’s bidirectional communication with other organs, with the aim of harnessing this crosstalk to support recovery after stroke.
Research efforts are essential to elucidate the biological processes that underlie the neurological symptoms observed after stroke. By identifying these mechanisms, scientists can design new therapeutic approaches to alleviate the consequences of stroke and reduce the burden on patients and their families. Stroke research is not only valuable – it is vital. Every discovery brings us closer to a future in which the devastating effects of stroke can be prevented, mitigated, or even fully reversed.
She earned her PhD for research on age-related cerebrovascular risk factors for dementia. Her subsequent work, which formed the basis of her Doctor of Science degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, focused on the pathomechanisms of ischemic stroke with therapeutic potential. She is a past president of the European Society for Microcirculation and currently serves as a Group Leader at the Hungarian Centre of Excellence for Molecular Medicine, as well as Chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Szeged, Hungary.