Temporal gene expression profiling of ischemic brain injury in rats after Semax and Pro-Gly-Pro treatment

A drug currently efficient for cerebral stroke therapy is Semax, a synthetic peptide bearing a fragment of ACTH (4–7) and the C-terminal tripeptide Pro-Gly-Pro (PGP) was included to ensure resistance to peptidases.The genome-wide expression changes induced by Semax and PGP in rat brain cortex tissues damaged by focal ischemia were studied using the genome-wide RatRef-12 Expression BeadChip (Illumina, USA), which contains 22,226 genes, according to NCBI. We compared the biochip data obtained at 3 h and 24 h after permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO) in each of the three groups (“ischemia,” “ischemia + Semax,” and “ischemia + PGP”). The transcriptome profiles were examined at 24 h vs. 3 h after pMCAO in rats that produced ischemic cortical injury and in rats with the same injury treated with Semax or PGP.