Chapter 3

Molecular Mechanism of Nervous System Disorders and Implications for New Therapeutic Targets

Farhin Patel and Palash Mandal

Abstract

The nervous system has a very good defence mechanism. The brain is protected by the skull, the spinal cord is shielded by vertebrae and thin membranes. The brain and spinal cord are buffered by cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). The nervous system is susceptible to assorted disorders. It can be damaged by the structural defects, autoimmune disorders, infection, degeneration disorders, trauma, blood flow interference or tumors. At present, there is no treatment that can alleviate the disorders of the nervous system completely. In recent years, progress has been made in treating nervous system disorders symptomatically but still new product development is lagging behind in treating the disorders originating in the nervous system. This is due to several factors, including the intricacy of a particular disease or efficacy of the drug or delivering system to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This chapter examines the modern state of major nervous system disorders like infection (meningitis), functional disorders (epilepsy, neuralgia), structural disorders (Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome) and degeneration disorder (Huntington disease). The discussion topics include analysis of biological machinery underlying each disease, cytokine expression involved in each disease and how it is regulated in particular disease along with its involvement in targeted therapy, approved pharmaceutical drugs and the development of new therapeutic technologies or customized approaches for drug delivery to particular target (epigenetics, Gene therapy, stem cell therapy). We suppose that with the intensification of modern science, the mobility of nervous system disorders will decline.

Total Pages: 60-89 (30)

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