Current Neuropharmacology - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2004

Ischemic brain damage develops at a pace slower than previously believed. In the penumbral area of the ischemic territory after focal ischemia, or in selectively vulnerable regions following transient global ischemia, cell death occurs hours or days following the acute insult. The process is the result of a complex cascade of pathogenic events, in which local and systemic factors play a role. Early and late excitotoxicity, apoptosis Read More

Ischemic stroke is responsible for about one third of all deaths in industrialized countries and is the major cause of serious, long-term disability in adults over the age of 45. It stands to reason that there is a need for pharmacotherapy to treat acute ischemic stroke. In over two decades of research, the hope of developing a neuroprotective drug that effectively reduces the severity of damage after stroke has not been reali Read More

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive and devastating neurodegenerative disorder affecting the brain. It is the most common form of late-life dementia and is one of the leading causes of death in the developed world. Due to the ageing population and improvement in diagnosis it is expected that the number of diagnosed AD patients will increase from the current level of ∼5 million to ∼22 million by 2025. Acetylcholi Read More

The discovery of a neuroprotective treatment is a high priority for research in Parkinson's disease. Substantial progress has been made towards this goal in recent years, but at the present there is still no treatment which can be said to have proven neuroprotective effects. There is no single unifying model to account for the disease; indeed it seems likely that the etiology is a convergence of several causes. This multiplicity m Read More

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder of unknown aetiology. Progressive motor weakness and bulbar dysfunction lead to premature death, usually from respiratory failure. To date, riluzole is the only disease-modifying drug approved for the treatment of ALS, but this has only a minor impact on the clinical outcome. The clinical development of new drugs for ALS is entirely dep Read More

Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal hereditary neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no known cure. In the years since the discovery of a trinucleotide CAG repeat in the gene encoding huntingtin as the disease's causative genetic lesion, there has been an explosion of research attempting to elucidate the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in HD, with the ultimate goal being the development of effective neuropr Read More