Neuroinflammation-Mediated Neurotoxin Production in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Year: 2003
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: There is critical need for the development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Of the many risk factors involved in their etiology, age is by far the largest. This is seen in the increased incidences of stroke and dementia with age even in the optimally healthy individual. The reason why age plays such a large role is probably related to the age-associated enhanced susceptibility of brain to insults which cause oxidative damage. An enhanced tendency of brain to have a smoldering neuroinflammatory state reflects this heightened age-associated risk. Exacerbated neuroinflammation is considered the cause of dementia associated with neurodegenerative conditions. Exacerbated neuroinflammation is associated with localized glia activation and results in the enhanced production of toxins that act more selectively on neurons. Nitric oxide and its oxidation products is considered the major neurotoxin produced, however, reactive oxygen species and lipid oxidation products are also produced at high levels in the localized region of exacerbated neuroinflammation. Agents, which quell the exacerbated neuroinflammation state, appear the most promising for future therapeutics. The nitrones are especially promising as novel therapeutics for various neurodegenerative diseases especially stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. They are considered in more depth.
Source: Humana Press eBooks
Authors: Robert A. Floyd, Kenneth Hensley
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W156357843