Search

Background: Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), are associated with metabolic abnormalities. Integrative analysis of human clinical data and animal studies have contributed to a better understanding of the molecular and cellular pathways involved in the progression of NDDs. Previously, we have reported that the combined metabolic activators (CMA), which include the precursors of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and glutathione can be utilized to alleviate metabolic disorders by activating mitochondrial metabolism., Methods: We first analysed the brain transcriptomics data from AD patients and controls using a brain-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM). Then, we investigated the effect of CMA administration in animal models of AD and PD. We evaluated pathological and immunohistochemical findings of brain and liver tissues. Moreover, PD rats were tested for locomotor activity and apomorphine-induced rotation., Findings: Analysis of transcriptomics data with GEM revealed that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the underlying molecular pathways of AD. In animal models of AD and PD, we showed significant damage in the high-fat diet groups' brain and liver tissues compared to the chow diet. The histological analyses revealed that hyperemia, degeneration and necrosis in neurons were improved by CMA administration in both AD and PD animal models. These findings were supported by immunohistochemical evidence of decreased immunoreactivity in neurons. In parallel to the improvement in the brain, we also observed dramatic metabolic improvement in the liver tissue. CMA administration also showed a beneficial effect on behavioural functions in PD rats., Interpretation: Overall, we showed that CMA administration significantly improved behavioural scores in parallel with the neurohistological outcomes in the AD and PD animal models and is a promising treatment for improving the metabolic parameters and brain functions in NDDs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest AM, JB and MU are the founder and shareholders of ScandiBio Therapeutics. The other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) is a rare neurological disease caused by the pathological accumulation of tau protein. The primary pathological features of CBD include progressive neurodegenerative processes resulting in remarkable frontoparietal and basal ganglia atrophy., Objective: Like in many other neurodegenerative disorders, there is still no effective disease-modifying drug therapy in CBD. Therefore, the development of new treatment methods is of great importance. In this study, we aimed to assess the stimulating effects of high-frequency DLPFC rTMS on the motor, cognitive and behavioral disturbances in four CBD patients., Methods: Four (three females, one male) CBD patients who had been diagnosed as CBD were enrolled in this study. Patients were evaluated before and after the rTMS procedure regarding the motor, neuropsychometric and behavioral tests. The results of statistical analysis of behavioral and neuropsychometric evaluation were assessed via SPSS 18.0 package program. Data are expressed as mean, standard deviation. Before and after values of the groups were compared with the Wilcoxon sign rank test, and p<0.05 was considered significant., Results: We have provided strong preliminary evidence that the improvement in clinical parameters was associated with the normalizations of the theta activity and glucose metabolism., Conclusion: Our current results are consistent with some previous trials showing a strong association between DLPFC targeted rTMS and electrophysiological normalizations in the left DLPFC., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

There are rapidly replicating human data suggesting the therapeutic and neurorestorative role of transcranial magnetic stimulation in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. However there are only limited experimental studies in the literature enlighting the neurobiological mechanisms of this technique. In the light of these findings, we aimed to review the neuroprotective effect of rTMS in various animal studies. We have shown that rTMS may exert significant neuroprotective effect through acting on the neuroinflammation, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and Aß aggregation.

Neuropharmacological relation of religious belief supports the role of dopaminergic activation as the leading neurochemical feature. However, vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT-2) has been shown to be responsible for removing of neurotransmitters such as dopamine that may secondarily lead to a neuroprotective activity by different neurodegeneration models. Moreover, there are interesting data showing that VMAT-2 may play an important role during religious belief and experience. In the light of these findings, we aimed to review the preclinical and clinical neuroprotective data of Vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT-2) in different neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. In respect of rapidly increasing evidences about the neurobiological and neuroimaging correlates of religious belief, we hypothesized that there is a link between belief and neuroprotection.