After the CNS injury, the secondary consequences usually culminate in cerebral edema. Only one approved pharmacological treatment exists against the edema: the application of a recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Apart from recombinant tPA, decompressive craniectomy can be applied. A craniectomy can reduce the intracranial pressure, which otherwise reduces cerebral blood flow and results in herniation, i.e., life-threatening consequences of high intracranial pressure
[81][82]. Surgical intervention, however, is only a symptomatic treatment, and it would be desirable to avoid progression and development of the rise in intracranial pressure. Despite the benefit of a craniectomy, glibenclamide treatment was even more effective in a rat model malignant stroke
[67]. Using recombinant tPA can be effective, but it is limited by the short therapeutic window and the possible risk of hemorrhagic conversion
[83]. Therefore, tPA is only applied in approximately 20% of patients
[84]. Among the many ion channel and transporter targets, SUR1-TRPM4 had the longest therapeutic window
[78]. Glibenclamide application was effective upon administration even 10 h after the event in a clinically relevant rat stroke model
[85]. Glibenclamide effectively reduced CNS injury-induced harmful consequences in rat
[86][87][88][89][90] and mouse animal models
[91][92] of TBI from independent labs. Glibenclamide application was also beneficial in stroke models in adult rats
[63] and to a certain extent (providing some long-term neuroprotective effect in moderate but not severe hypoxia–ischemia) in neonatal rats too
[93]. Glibenclamide administration exerted a beneficial effect on subarachnoid
[94][95], but not in intracerebral, hemorrhages
[96][97]. In the case of an intracerebral hemorrhage model with aged rats, glibenclamide treatment improved neurological outcomes and ameliorated neuroinflammation
[98]. Glibenclamide treatment exerted beneficial actions in a model of hemorrhagic encephalopathy of prematurity
[99], just as it did in inflammation-associated conditions of the CNS
[94][95][100] and other organs (respiratory, digestive, urological, and cardiac)
[101]. Moreover, glibenclamide application was beneficial in HIV infection in vitro
[102]. In a mouse model of peripheral nerve injury, glibenclamide-induced inhibition of the newly expressed SUR1 in astrocytes reduced neuropathic pain
[103]. Furthermore, glibenclamide treatment reduced the edema and thereby improved the glymphatic flow in status post epilepticus
[104]. Likewise, glibenclamide improved the outcome in murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
[105]. It must be noted that the beneficial effect of glibenclamide in stroke models might also be mediated by the blockade of K
ATP channels on rat CA1 pyramidal neurons in vitro
[106] or by the in vivo blockade of microglial K
ATP channels in rats
[68][107][108]. This option was questioned later, as specific antisense oligonucleotides targeted against SUR1 or TRPM4, but not Kir6.1 or Kir6.2 (partners of SUR1 in forming K
ATP channels), significantly reduced hemispheric swelling in rats in post-ischemic tissues showing co-assembly of SUR1-TRPM4 heteromers
[71].