IL1A and Stroke: Since the early 1990s, a magnitude of studies showed that IL-1 exacerbates ischemic brain injury in rodent stroke models (Stroemer & Rothwell, 1998; Yamasaki et al., 1995), whereas administration of the naturally occurring and highly specific IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is neuroprotective (Clausen et al., 2016; Maysami et al., 2016; Relton & Rothwell, 1992).