Central Nervous System Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Central Nervous System Agents) - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2008

Injury to the central nervous system (CNS) initiates a series of complex events that are responsible for cell and tissue damage over time. The primary insult, i.e., trauma, ischemia, hypoxia, hyperthermia, etc., results in secondary injury cascades involving release of several neurochemicals and other factors that alters the brain micro-fluid environment. The most important secondary injury events include increased levels of Read More

Clinical depression is a chronic, recurrent mood disorder that causes significant disability and disease burden throughout the world. Not surprisingly, there is an enormous demand for finding (a) appropriate medications and devices for treating the clinical symptoms and (b) the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease. Currently, most therapeutic treatments of depression indirectly target the serotonin and norepin Read More

Postischemic-anoxic encephalopathy, defined as delayed progressive secondary injury occurs in humans after resuscitation following cardiac arrest. It is much more severe than the initial episode of global brain ischemia from heart attack. This encephalopathy is widespread and may happen after heart surgeries and hypoxia owing to acute carbon monoxide intoxication. About 30%-80% of survivors of resuscitation un Read More

Glucose is the main fuel for cell life, and supports a number of different processes in providing cells with energy. Excess glucose is polymerized into glycogen, which is an energy-glucose store. Alterations in glycogen content and/or synthesis have been reported in human neuropathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsies and cancer. Epileptic foci are hypometabolic during the interictal period, and probably hypermetabolic Read More

Current drug therapy strategies for the nervous system are based on the assumption that the adult central nervous system (CNS) lacks the capacity to make new nerve cells and regenerate after injury. Contrary to a long-held dogma, adult neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain and neural stem cells (NSCs) reside in the adult CNS. Neurogenesis in the adult brain is modulated in a broad range of environmental conditi Read More

Cell culture models can provide information pertaining to the effective dose, toxiciology, and kinetics, for a variety of neuroactive compounds. However, many in vitro models fail to adequately predict how such compounds will perform in a living organism. At the systems level, interactions between organs can dramatically affect the properties of a compound by alteration of its biological activity or by elimination of it from t Read More