Ischemic stroke is a
cerebrovascular disease normally caused by interrupted blood supply to the brain.
Ischemia would initiate the cascade reaction consisted of multiple biochemical events in the damaged areas of the brain, where the ischemic cascade eventually leads to cell death and
brain infarction. Extensive researches focusing on different stages of the cascade reaction have been conducted with the aim of curing
ischemic stroke. However, traditional treatment methods based on antithrombotic
therapy and neuroprotective
therapy are greatly limited for their poor safety and treatment efficacy. Nanomedicine provides new possibilities for treating
stroke as they could improve the pharmacokinetic behavior of drugs in vivo, achieve effective drug accumulation at the target site, enhance the
therapeutic effect and meanwhile reduce the side effect. In this review, we comprehensively describe the pathophysiology of
stroke, traditional treatment strategies and emerging nanomedicines, summarize the barriers and methods for transporting nanomedicine to the lesions, and illustrate the latest progress of nanomedicine in treating
ischemic stroke, with a view to providing a new feasible path for the treatment of
cerebral ischemia.