About this Research Topic
Treatment resistance, drug resistance, refractoriness, or pharmacoresistance, is a common phenomenon that prevents or undermines the effective therapy of several central nervous system (CNS) disorders. It has nefarious consequences on the quality of life of patients and families, and aggravates the costs for healthcare systems, thereby contributing to the socioeconomic burden of disease.
Resistance to treatment is often associated with neurological and psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, migraine, and brain tumors. Despite insufficient knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms, lack of definition consensus, and absence of biomarkers to distinguish responders from non-responders, it is believed that treatment resistance is likely multifactorial. It has been attributed to neurobiological alterations including the activation of specific neural circuitry, genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic contributions, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, or pharmacokinetic modifications in peripheral organs.
New therapeutic agents, augmentation strategies, and drug delivery systems have been attempted in recent years to overcome these challenges. In particular, advanced drug delivery systems allow the circumvention of treatment resistance by decreasing off-target specificity and promoting access to the target site, which enhances therapeutic efficacy and minimizes adverse effects. Innovative pharmacological approaches are expected to improve current treatments with marketed drugs and facilitate the future optimization of more effective agents for CNS diseases, thereby counteracting the high attrition rates in this therapeutic area.
In this Research Topic, we encourage in vitro, in vivo, non-clinical and clinical studies exploring the latest developments to counteract treatment resistance in CNS disorders. These include original research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews.
Resistance to treatment is often associated with neurological and psychiatric conditions such as epilepsy, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, migraine, and brain tumors. Despite insufficient knowledge regarding the underlying mechanisms, lack of definition consensus, and absence of biomarkers to distinguish responders from non-responders, it is believed that treatment resistance is likely multifactorial. It has been attributed to neurobiological alterations including the activation of specific neural circuitry, genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic contributions, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, or pharmacokinetic modifications in peripheral organs.
New therapeutic agents, augmentation strategies, and drug delivery systems have been attempted in recent years to overcome these challenges. In particular, advanced drug delivery systems allow the circumvention of treatment resistance by decreasing off-target specificity and promoting access to the target site, which enhances therapeutic efficacy and minimizes adverse effects. Innovative pharmacological approaches are expected to improve current treatments with marketed drugs and facilitate the future optimization of more effective agents for CNS diseases, thereby counteracting the high attrition rates in this therapeutic area.
In this Research Topic, we encourage in vitro, in vivo, non-clinical and clinical studies exploring the latest developments to counteract treatment resistance in CNS disorders. These include original research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews.
Keywords: Central Nervous System, Drug Resistance, Drug Delivery, Pharmacokinetics, Treatment Resistance, CNS Disorders
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