About this Research Topic
Although many drugs are used for the treatment of neurological disorders, most of these are not effective for every patient and may have undesirable side-effects. Thus, there is an enormous unmet need in current therapy for discovering safer and more effective agents. Natural products not only alleviate clinical symptoms, but also have the unique advantage of protecting and repairing effects on nervous system. It is necessary to conduct more research to better understand their action, to confirm their effectiveness and safety, and to introduce them into clinical practice. For example Traditional Chinese Medicine compounds and their preparations in therapy of neurological diseases, as well as how they may contribute to the above diseases pathogenesis, thereby offering some clues for further studies.
For this Research Topic we therefore welcome submission on, but not limited to, the following topics:
Natural products and Stroke: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) are, currently, the major contributor to global mortality and will continue to dominate mortality rates in the future.
Natural products and Parkinson’s Disease: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder due to gradual loss of dopaminergic nerves in the substantia nigra (SN) in the midbrain. PD leads to certain motor disorders including resting tremor, muscle stiffness and slow movement.
Natural products and Multiple Sclerosis: Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease, usually caused by inflammation, demyelination, and axonal injury. The currently available medications for multiple sclerosis do not directly promote myelin sheath repair. Therefore, many studies have attempted to achieve better therapeutic effects through promoting remyelination.
Natural products and Alzheimer’s Disease: Alzheimer's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, for which there is a continuous search of drugs able to reduce or stop the cognitive decline.
Natural products and Migraine: Migraine may be described as a headache with moderate to extreme pain that is often accompanied by incapacitating neurological symptoms. It is estimated that 12% of the world population suffers from migraine.
Natural products and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder affecting motor neurons, resulting in progressive muscle weakness and death by respiratory failure. Protein and RNA aggregates are a hallmark of ALS pathology and are thought to contribute to ALS by impairing axonal transport.
We would like to acknowledge that Dr. Paschalis Devranis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, has acted as a coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal for this Research Topic.
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