CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - CNS & Neurological Disorders) - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2015

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) often suffer from cognitive dysfunction; the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Recent studies suggest that MS leads to heightened synaptic transmission and plasticity in different brain areas, and therefore may contribute to the observed behavioral abnormalities. Recent findings demonstrate synaptic plasticity changes in MS, including evidence from animal mod Read More

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) leading to severe neurological deficits. To date, no treatment is available that halts disease progression, but clinical symptoms can be generally improved by therapies involving anti-inflammatory and/or immune modulatory reagents, which may cause off-target effects. Therefore, there remains a high and unmet need for more sel Read More

Individual microRNAs and/or microRNA signatures were associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We report here the recent advances brought to the identification of microRNA changes in AD brain and their biological function in the molecular pathways associated with the disease. This field represents a fertile route to understand the pathogenic mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease. In addition we review recent studie Read More

MicroRNAs are small RNAs involved in gene silencing. They play important roles in transcriptional regulation and are selectively and abundantly expressed in the central nervous system. A considerable amount of the human genome is comprised of tandem repeating nucleotide streams. Several diseases are caused by above-threshold expansion of certain trinucleotide repeats occurring in a protein-coding or non-coding r Read More

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes neurodegeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons and progressive muscle impairment, atrophy and death within approximately five years from diagnosis. The aetiology is still not clear but evidence obtained in animal models of the disease indicates a non-cell-autonomous mechanism with the active contribution of non-neuronal cells such as microglia, astrocytes, muscle and Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ∼22 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that control gene expression post-transcriptionally by base pairing to mRNAs. MiRNAs are predicted to target ∼50% of all protein-coding genes and functional studies indicate that they participate in the regulation of almost every cellular process. They also play a key role in pathogenetic mechanisms underlying several diseases, e.g. cancer, cardiovascular diseases, autoi Read More

Glioblastoma (GBM) is among the most lethal human cancers, being generally characterized by rapid diffuse and infiltrative growth and high level of cellular heterogeneity associated with therapeutic resistance. Despite remarkable advances in cancer theranostics, which resulted in significant improvement of clinical outcomes, patient survival remains under one year. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in un Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that function as translational repressors and represent an important element in tissue development as well as disease. MiRNA sequences and their target sites in mRNAs show an extensive degree of conservation across species. A single miRNA is now believed to recognize the 3’untranslated region of mRNAs in a sequence-specific manner to inhibit the protein expr Read More

Activated astrocytes, which can also be referred to as reactive astrocytes or astrogliosis, have been identified in affected regions of common neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis. Activated astrocytes may be beneficial, promoting neuronal survival due to their production of growth factors and neurotrophins. Activated astroc Read More

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for more than half of cases with cognitive impairment. With numbers of patients expected to rise sharply over the following years in parallel with the ageing of population, there is intense clinical interest in discovering modifiable risk factors that may contribute to the increasing prevalence of AD. Accumulating data from in vitro and epidemiological stud Read More

Depression is an affective disorder characterized by hallucination, delusion and increased social risk and is estimated to affect approximately 20 % of the population at some point during the lifetime. As per World Health Organization (WHO) it is predicted to be the leading cause of burden of disease by 2030. Effects of currently available antidepressants have explained the monoamine hypothesis of depression, which propose Read More

Acute methamphetamine (METH) intoxication induces metabolic brain activation as well as multiple physiological and behavioral responses that could result in life-threatening health complications. Previously, we showed that METH (9 mg/kg) used in freely moving rats induces robust leakage of blood-brain barrier, acute glial activation, vasogenic edema, and structural abnormalities of brain cells. These changes were tightly c Read More

Aging is a process of progressive decline in physiological functions resulting in increased vulnerability to diseases and death. Aging results in increased rates of age related disorders like neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, arthritis etc. Modulation of insulin signaling, protein aggregation, stress, free radical damage and inflammation are the major causes for deleterious changes resulti Read More