Exogenous MANF protects brain tissue from ischemic damage in rat models of ischemic stroke when delivered intracranially as a protein or via viral vector [2, 3, 23, 50, 72, 79] and, more importantly, alleviates functional deficits when injected intracranially several days after cerebral ischemia [6, 48]. Here, MANF is linked to ischemic stroke.