Systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor agonist FTY720 (fingolimod) in animal models of stroke.

ABSTRACTBackground and Purpose: FTY720 (fingolimod) is a known sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor agonist, which has been used in clinical trials for treating multiple sclerosis, renal transplantation, and decreasing reperfusion injury in heart, liver, and kidney. Most of these clinical trials have showed a positive effect. Especially, the trials of MS showed a reduction of relapse rate in FTY720-treated patients. Now, some animal experiments indicated that FTY720 could be a new compound available treatment for stroke patients by exerting neuroprotection via S1P1 mediated antiapoptotic mechanisms. Whether it could be effective in animals is unclear, so we conducted a systematic review to make it clear. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of FTY720 in animal models of focal cerebral ischemia by electronic and manual searches of the literature. Data on study quality, FTY720 dose, time of administration, and outcome measured as infarct volume or functional deficit ...