Current Drug Targets - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2012

New Mechanisms of Neuronal Injury and Neuroprotection Neurological diseases, including such devastating illnesses as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and brain tumors, belong to the major diseases that have caused the greatest number of death and disability around the world. A large number of studies have exposed many mechanisms of the illnesses. However, our understandin Read More

There are two major routes for clearance of aberrant cellular components: (i) the ubiquitin-proteasomal system (UPS); and (ii) the autophagy pathway. The UPS degrades individual abnormal proteins, whereas the autophagy pathway is the chief route for bulk degradation of large abnormal protein aggregates and aberrant organelles. Impairments of the protein degradation pathways are closely tied with many human diseas Read More

Chemokine CXC ligand 12 (CXCL12), originally named stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), is a member of the CXC chemokine subfamily. CXCL12 is found to be expressed by all cell types that are presented in the central nervous system (CNS). It works in conjunction with the G-protein coupled receptor CXCR4, which is found at the surface of a variety of cells including neurons, astrocytes, microglia, bone marrow-derived cells, a Read More

Ischemic postconditioning is a concept originally defined to contrast with that of ischemic preconditioning. While both preconditioning and postconditioning confer a neuroprotective effect on brain ischemia, preconditioning is a sublethal insult performed in advance of brain ischemia, and postconditioning, which conventionally refers to a series of brief occlusions and reperfusions of the blood vessels, is conducted after Read More

Stroke is the third most common cause of death, particularly of the elderly. Despite considerable advances in knowledge about the mechanisms of cell death after stroke, a treatment for stroke remains exclusive. For a long time, estrogen was thought of only as a “sex hormone”. Studies have documented that estrogen plays an important role in regulating behavioral and physiological events beyond the reproductive system. M Read More

The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor is a major type of ionotropic glutamate receptor. Many studies have shown that NMDA receptors play a pivotal role in the central nervous system (CNS) under both physiological and pathological conditions. The functional diversity of NMDA receptors can be mainly attributed to their different subunit compositions that perform multiple functions in various situations. Furthermore, recen Read More

Numerous studies have indicated that four interacting factors, including oxidative stress, mitochondrial alterations, calcium dyshomeostasis and inflammation, play crucial pathological roles in multiple major neurological diseases, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Increasing evidence has also indicated that NAD+ plays important roles in not only mitochondrial functions and energy me Read More

The use of opioid analgesics has a long history in clinical settings, although the comprehensive action of opioid receptors is still less understood. Nonetheless, recent studies have generated fresh insights into opioid receptor-mediated functions and their underlying mechanisms. Three major opioid receptors (μ-opioid receptor, MOR; δ-opioid receptor, DOR; and κ-opioid receptor, KOR) have been cloned in many species. Each Read More

The effects of exercise pre-conditioning on lessening the impact of ischemia/reperfusion injury provide pivotal information and potential targets for future pharmacological intervention. Exercise induces increased expression of neurotrophic factors, the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, integrins, angiogenic factors, as well as tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and heat shock proteins (Hsp-70). These factors all directly enhan Read More

Protons are important signals for neuronal function. In the central nervous system (CNS), proton concentrations change locally when synaptic vesicles release their acidic contents into the synaptic cleft, and globally in ischemia, seizures, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological disorders due to lactic acid accumulation. The finding that protons gate a distinct family of ion channels, the acid-sensing ion channels ( Read More

Nitric oxide/peroxynitrite signaling is associated with manifold neurovascular pathogenic cascades that lead to neurodegenerative diseases, including ischemic stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and vascular dementia. Considerable evidence suggests that reactive nitrogen species as mediators of nitrosative stress could damage biomolecules and subsequently facilitate the breakdown of the highly-structured cellular machinery. Read More

Cardiovascular complications are the leading cause of mortality, accounting for 50% of all deaths among patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The majority of these deaths are from cardiac causes. The mechanisms underlying the enhanced susceptibility to myocardial ischaemia and subsequent morbidity in ESRD remain ill-defined. Numerous metabolic derangements accompany myocardial ischaemia and reperf Read More