It should be noted that for our in vitro analyses, we set a control-LBP group to investigate whether LBP affects neural viability and expression of major proteins in the NR2B and NR2A signaling pathways under normal physiological conditions. Our results indicated that there were no significant changes by LBP treatment, suggesting that LBP is safe to neuronal cells. Overall, the present study demonstrated that LBP is neuroprotective against ischemic injury by its dual roles in activation of NR2A-mediated survival pathway and inhibition of NR2B-mediated apoptotic pathway, which suggests that LBP may be a superior therapeutic candidate for the treatment of ischemic stroke.