Stress, Neuron-glia Communication, and Neurodegeneration

Increase in age of the world population has led to exponential rise in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Accumulation of stress in an organism, such as oxidative and DNA damage, unfolded protein response, and organellar dysfunctions, may lead to neurodegeneration in later years. Factors like age and co-morbidities like diabetes worsen the damage accrued over time. Determining the time of initiation for a pathological event and understanding how different stress pathways are regulated and coordinated at the cellular and organellar level, is of fundamental importance. There are biomarkers to monitor progression of cognitive dysfunction associated with different neurodegenerative disorders. Studies are also underway to develop targeted therapies to prevent or delay neurodegenerative diseases. However, identifying the earliest events leading to later disorders is necessary to stop or slow down progression of neurodegeneration.

How stress signals interact and affect each other at the earliest stages of neurodegeneration to aggravate the severity of the situation is unknown. Identifying the events that cause rapid cognitive decline are important to develop effective therapies that can be applied at the right time. The goal of this editorial section is to a gain a comprehensive understanding of how different brain cells such as glia, neurons etc. communicate with each other under stress. Several lines of evidence show that glial cells and neurons, as well as the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding all the brain structures accumulate pathological changes as animals age and demonstrate altered functionality. However, if these changes lead to future neurological disorders remain unknown. Therefore, we want to invite researchers to submit their work that will help us identify the initial pathological events in glia and neurons and understand how these events may lead to decline in cognitive health.

As a part of the Frontiers in Neurology journal, this special edition will offer a place to publish new research findings in the quickly developing fields of Molecular Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration. The research articles that we aim to publish in this special edition will range from Short Reports (1-2 Figures), Full Research Articles, Review Articles, and Articles Describing Novel Methods or Techniques. These novel scientific articles will undergo peer review by experts in the given subject area and advance our understanding of the cellular communications during the early pathological stages of neurodegeneration. We welcome original submissions from the research community, and we will prioritize articles where the reported findings show practical significance.