Summary

Neurodegeneration refers to the progressive loss of neuron structure or function, which may eventually lead to cell death. Many neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease and prion disease, are the results of neurodegenerative processes. Neurodegeneration can be found in many different levels of neuronal circuits in the brain, from molecules to systems. Since there is no known method to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons, these diseases are considered incurable. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level, including atypical protein assembly (such as protein diseases) and induction of cell death. These similarities indicate that progress in the treatment of one neurodegenerative disease may also improve other diseases. This collection of entries aims to collect various medical research results related to neurodegeneration. We invite researchers to share their new results and ideas related to neurodegeneration.

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Entries
Topic Review
Natural Molecules for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Natural molecules with favorable safety profile and broad pharmacological activities have shown great promise in the treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Studies applying natural molecules against NDDs mainly focus on well-recognized conventional pathogenesis, such as toxic protein aggregation, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. However, accumulating evidence reveals that some underlying pathogenic mechanisms are involved earlier and more deeply in the occurrence and development of NDDs, such as ferroptosis, energy metabolism disorders, autophagy-lysosomal dysfunction, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and gut dysbiosis. Therefore, determining whether natural molecules can play therapeutic roles in these emerging pathogenic mechanisms will help clarify the actual targets of natural molecules and their future clinical translation.
  • 349
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Ethanol versus Adenosine on Emotional and Cognitive Disturbances
Binge drinking intake is the most common pattern of ethanol consumption by adolescents, which elicits emotional disturbances, mainly anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as cognitive alterations. Ethanol exposure may act on the adenosine neuromodulation system by increasing adenosine levels, consequently increasing the activation of adenosine receptors in the brain. The adenosine modulation system is involved in the control of mood and memory behavior.
  • 556
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Ghrelin and Microglia in Neuroinflammation
Numerous studies have shown that microglia are capable of producing a wide range of chemokines to promote inflammatory processes within the central nervous system (CNS). These cells share many phenotypical and functional characteristics with macrophages, suggesting that microglia participate in innate immune responses in the brain. Neuroinflammation induces neurometabolic alterations and increases in energy consumption. Microglia may constitute an important therapeutic target in neuroinflammation.
  • 480
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
TLR4-Pathway-Associated Biomarkers in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a complex condition with high morbidity and mortality. Numerous different factors contributing to brain injury after SAH have been identified. Despite treatment of complications of early brain injury, such as rise of intracranial pressure, disturbance of the blood–brain barrier, cerebral edema, and decrease in cerebral perfusion, the outcome of many patients remains devastating. Neuroinflammation within the brain parenchyma with associated neuronal cell death has been described as a leading mechanism for additional secondary brain injury. It involves complex signaling cascades in which the upregulation of inflammatory genes is induced. Consequently, the release of different inflammatory cytokines and chemokines leads to self-reinforcement of the immune system with concomitant neuronal cell death, destroying the brain. The immune system within the central nervous system (CNS) fulfills a special role. It is privileged and differs in its standards from the peripheral immune response. 
  • 589
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Rapid Eye Movements Sleep Behavior Disorder
Sleep parasomnias have drawn the interest of sleep experts because they represent a valuable window to directly monitor dream activity and sleep mentation associated with nocturnal events. Indeed, parasomnias and their manifestations are helpful in investigating dream activity and features, overcoming methodological limits that affect dream study. Specifically, REM sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia characterized by enacted dream episodes during Rapid Eye Movements (REM) sleep, caused by the loss of physiological atonia. Patients suffering from RBD report a peculiar oneiric activity associated with motor episodes characterized by high Dream Recall Frequency (DRF) and vivid dreams. Additionally, isolated RBD (iRBD) represents a prodromal stage of neurodegeneration preceding the development of α-synucleinopathies.
  • 563
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Metabolic Regulation of Mitochondrial Protein Biogenesis in neurons
Neurons critically depend on mitochondria for ATP production and Ca2+ buffering. They are highly compartmentalized cells and therefore a finely tuned mitochondrial network constantly adapting to the local requirements is necessary. For neuronal maintenance, old or damaged mitochondria need to be degraded, while the functional mitochondrial pool needs to be replenished with freshly synthesized components. Mitochondrial biogenesis is known to be primarily regulated via the PGC-1α-NRF1/2-TFAM pathway at the transcriptional level. However, while transcriptional regulation of mitochondrial genes can change the global mitochondrial content in neurons, it does not explain how a morphologically complex cell like a neuron adapts to local differences in mitochondrial demand. 
  • 482
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Nanosystems for Brain Drug Delivery
Antipsychotic drugs have numerous disabling side effects, and many are lipophilic, making them hard to formulate at high strength. Incorporating them into nanometric emulsions can increase their solubility, protect them from degradation, and increase their brain delivery, being a promising strategy to overcome the current treatment gap.
  • 599
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Alcohol-Induced Oxidative Stress for the Brain
Alcohol use disorders (AUD) is defined by the loss of control over alcohol intake and chronic, compulsive, heavy alcohol use despite adverse consequences. Among patients seeking treatment for AUD, the proportion of patients at treatment entry endorsing the criteria for pharmacological dependence was 63% for tolerance and 14% for withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal (AW) syndrome is the combination of signs and symptoms occurring as soon as three to six hours after the last intake of alcohol in subjects with pharmacological dependence. The classical symptoms are tremor, perspiration, anxiety and adrenergic signs (hypertension, tachycardia). Untreated AW can lead to specific complications: delirium tremens (DT) and seizure. Several indirect complications of the adrenergic syndrome may also occur during an untreated AW syndrome as dehydration, cardiac failure or renal failure. Mortality reaches 8% in patients with AW syndrome hospitalized in intensive care units, because of any or the combination of those multiple organs complications. AW is still considered as a dangerous complication of undetected AUD during any surgery or medical inpatient treatment. 
  • 526
  • 08 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Utility of Chinese Versions of Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination
Addenbrooke’s cognitive examination (ACE) is a cognitive screening tool that has developed through three stages: ACE, ACE-Revised (ACE-R), and ACE-Ⅲ. In addition, mini-Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (M-ACE) and ACE mobile are the additional versions that is derived from ACE-III. ACE and its related versions show better performance than Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in detecting mild cognitive impairment in different neurological disorders. It has been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese.
  • 703
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Astroglial sncRNA Relevance on Early Neurodegeneration Stages
Astrocyte dysfunction with consequential neuronal microenvironment dysregulation (astrocytopathy) has been involved in processes of early neurodegenerative disease. Small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) vary in different detrimental conditions of Central Nervous System (CNS), and sustained changes in sncRNA astrocyte expression profile can be the consequence of these conditions. sncRNA signatures derived from astrocytes, could therefore be a key to reveal early neurodegenerative disease, helping to unravel the astrocyte role in neurodegenerative disease. Current biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease, face strong challenges such as high variability, negative cost-effectiveness, low availability, or invasiveness. For example, cerebrospinal fluid evaluation (CSF tests) is a highly invasive, expensive, risky procedure, often used in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease. The alternative to CSF tests, which is neuroimaging requires especial equipment, long operating time and it is highly expensive making their widespread use prohibitive. Still, misdiagnosis could occur after the use of these powerful tools. Therefore, new methods are needed to assess neurodegeneration, and extracellular vesicles from astrocytes (ADEV) represent and interesting target of research. ADEV cross blood brain-barrier (BBB) carrying sncRNA from astrocytes and cell-specific membrane surface proteins, which can be used to allow ADEV separation from vesicles of other sources and other contaminants. This approach could be useful for the analysis of a less invasive, simpler, peripheral sample of blood origin. sncRNA dysregulated in conditions associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative disease and their possible effects on target cells is shown.
  • 461
  • 05 Dec 2022
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