An Overview of Target Specific Neuro-Protective and Neuro-Restorative Strategies

The cellular mechanisms underlying neuronal loss and neurodegeneration have been an area of great interest for neuroscientists throughout the world. The development of animal models that simulate critical components of clinical neurodegenerative diseases have provided tremendous insight into the pathophysiological pathways and have facilitated the application of targeted pharmacotherapy. Although neurodegenerative diseases (ND), such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD), and multiple sclerosis (MS) each have distinct clinical symptoms and pathologies, they also share common mechanisms such as intraand/or extracellular accumulation of misfolded proteins; apoptosis; neuroinflammation; mitochondrial injury, oxidative stress and excitotoxic insult (Tarawneh and Galvin, 2010). No one mechanism appears to be primary in all cases of a particular ND, and these pathogenic most mechanisms most likely act synergistically through complex interactions to promote neurodegeneration. Discussion of these mechanisms is briefly reviewed here in reference to their implications for the development of novel neuroprotective /neuro-restorative agents targeting one or more of these pathways.