CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - CNS & Neurological Disorders) - Volume 10, Issue 4, 2011

Neurotrophic factors are essential for the survival and differentiation of developing neurons and also for their protection and recovery under pathological conditions. Therefore neurotrophic factors are being considered as a crucial therapeutic strategy for neurological disorders such as dementia or stroke. Similar pharmacological effects have been shown for Cerebrolysin, a neuropeptide preparation used for the treatm Read More

Human neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Huntington's disease (HD) result from progressive death of specific populations of CNS neurons, and represent a fast growing health challenge. Current therapeutics relieve disease symptoms, but fail to halt disease progression or cure these deliberating diseases. Stem cell strategies hold strong promise for human n Read More

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst stage embryos, while induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are generated from somatic cells through transient overexpression of defined transcription factors. When transplanted into a preimplantation embryo, ES cells and iPS cells can differentiate into any cell type, including germ cells. Moreover, they can grow in culture indefinitely while maint Read More

Neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain in a constitutive manner under physiological circumstances within two regions: the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles. In contrast to these two so-called neurogenic areas, other regions of the brain were considered to be primarily non-neurogenic in nature, implying that no new neurons were formed there under normal conditions. R Read More

There is a renewed enthusiasm for the clinical translation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells. This is abetted by putative clinically-compliant strategies for hES cell maintenance and directed differentiation, greater understanding of and accessibility to cells through formal cell registries and centralized cell banking for distribution, the revised US government policy on funding hES cell research, and paradoxically the disco Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD), a common degenerative disease in humans, is known to result from loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra and is characterized by severe motor symptoms of tremor, rigidity, bradykinsia and postural instability. Although levodopa administration, surgical neural lesion, and deep brain stimulation have been shown to be effective in improving parkinsonian symptoms, cell replacement therap Read More

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which impairs the memory and intellectual abilities of the affected individuals. Loss of episodic as well as semantic memory is an early and principal feature. The basal forebrain cholinergic system is the population of neurons most affected by the neurodegenerative process. Extracellular as well as intracellular deposition of β- amyloid or Abeta (Aβ) protein, intr Read More

The evidence for the existence of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain, including humans is now widely accepted. Despite the fact that adult neural stem cells appear to be very promising, a wide range of their unrevealed properties, abilities but also limitations under physiological and especially pathological conditions still need to be investigated and explained. Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by successive d Read More

Schwann cells are critically important for tissue repair, axonal regrowth and remyelination following injury to peripheral nerves. The absence of Schwann cells or an equivalent cell type in the central nervous system (CNS) may limit the regeneration capacity of the CNS. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have therefore been investigated for their potential to be induced to develop a Schwann cell phenotype. The methods for d Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, characterized by a selective loss of midbrain dopaminergic (DA) neurons. To address this problem, various types of stem cells that have potential to differentiate into DA neurons are being investigated as cellular therapies for PD, including cells derived from embryonic or adult donor tissue, and embryonic stem cells. These cell sources, however. have raised ce Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a severe deliberating neurological disease caused by progressive degenerative death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of midbrain. While cell replacement strategy by transplantation of neural stem cells and inducement of dopaminergic neurons is recommended for the treatment of PD, understanding the differentiation mechanism and controlled proliferation of grafted stem cells r Read More