Drug Targeting for CNS Disease, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Central nervous system (CNS) diseases (neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric) have a chronic and progressive character, cause significant morbidity and mortality, and have become a major medical and socioeconomic problem in recent years. To date, the etiology of CNS diseases has not been fully explained. However, it was confirmed that CNS pathologies are usually connected with complex disturbances which simultaneously affect a few neurotransmission systems, often characterized with a progressive loss of neurons in certain brain areas and related to some common features/disorders (association with age, partially/fully genetic predisposition, protein misfolding and aggregation in brain tissue, inflammatory response and oxidative neuronal injuries, excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunctions, and morphological features of apoptosis).

Current treatment of CNS diseases is largely symptomatic, and it does not bring satisfactory therapeutic effects. Thus, there is a crucial need to design strategies for new drug development based on a better understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying the pathological conditions and on molecular targeting of therapeutic molecules based thereupon. Currently, many compounds are being tested out. Experimental and clinical observations reveal that nonselective, multipotent drugs appear to be more effective. According to the most recent trends, we should apply therapeutic tools that can simultaneously affect various systems (dual targeting drugs, multitargeting drugs). Thus, CNS diseases are still a huge challenge for researchers.

In this Special Issue of Pharmaceutics, entitled “Drug Targeting for CNS Disease, 2nd Edition”, we invite researchers from both academia and industry to publish their latest research related to CNS diseases. Original papers and reviews on neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s diseases), mental diseases (e.g., depression), addictions or cancer as well as molecular targets involved in these diseases are welcome. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the search for new active compounds (medicines) along with pharmacological and pharmacokinetic evaluation. All preclinical (including in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo tests) as well as clinical studies for the prevention or treatment of CNS diseases are invited.

We look forward to your contribution.

Dr. Dorota Łażewska
Dr. Anna Stasiak
Guest Editors

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