Potential Pharmacotherapeutic Targets in Neurodegenerative Diseases
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 139
Special Issue Editor
Interests: drug design for neurodegenerative diseases; multi-target directed ligands; multifunctional ligands; anti-neuroinflammatory drug candidates and neuroprotection; inflammation; pain; cancer; neglected diseases; psychiatric diseases
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Neurological and neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are a group of disabling illnesses, including some chronic and incurable pathologies, that represent some of the biggest current challenges in medicine, medicinal chemistry, and other health sciences. These diseases comprise a vast group of neuronal disorders that include depression, schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and others, today representing a great socio-economic impact. Regarding neurodegenerative disease, it is estimated that more than 50 million are suffering from some neurological disease worldwide, and in the case of NDs, aging is one of the main risk factors. Notably, all advances attained through medicine and technology have led to an improved human life quality and crescent longevity, especially in the most developed regions of the world. Thus, the epidemiological statistics related to NDs are expected to rise in the coming years. The etiology of such neurological and neurodegenerative diseases are not fully understood, but there is a current consensus that the onset and progression of almost all of them are associated with multifactorial conditions, including genetic predisposition, environmental aspects, epigenetics, inflammation, oxidative stress, and selective neuronal vulnerability. The biochemical and cellular basis of such neurological manifestations have been intensively studied over the last decades, and significant advances have been reached, with deeper learning about their pathogenesis and several newly approved drugs and new therapeutic practices. The complex multifactorial-based pathogenesis of NDs is mainly characterized by protein misfolding, oxidative stress, neuronal loss, and neuroinflammation. Therefore, in recent decades, most of the research projects developed in the academia and pharma inducstries have been dedicated to a better understanding of cellular and signaling changes related to such diseases, as well as to the identification of molecular targets that could be effectively modulated in diverse mechanisms of actions and could lead to the discovery and development of innovative disease-modifying drugs. Thus, considering the lack of efficacy from the available medicines for the treatment of NDs and other neurological conditions, and given that neuroinflammation, autophagy, and oxidative stress play key roles in their pathophysiology, the development of new drug candidate prototypes, considering new molecular targets, higher chemical diversity, and diverse mechanisms of actions, including the modulation of multiple targets addressing anti-neuroinflammation and neuroprotection, could represent a great revolution in drug development and therapeutics.
Prof. Dr. Cláudio Viegas-Junior
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- neurodegenerative diseases
- neuroinflammation
- neuroprotection
- molecular targets
- therapeutic drugs
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