Pathobiology of Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Focus on Glial Cell
A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Physiology and Pathology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 611
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mood disorders; sleep disturbance; psychopharmacology; psychological trauma
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: astrocytes; beta amyloid; luteolin; microglia; neuroinflammation; neuroprotection; palmitoylethanolamide; preclinical Alzheimer’s disease; prodromal Alzheimer’s disease; reactive gliosis; Alzheimer’s disease; astrogliosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We all know that neuropsychiatric disorders are a heterogeneous group of brain disorders, most of which are debilitating and severely affect the quality of life of patients and their families. Each specific neuropsychiatric disorder has its own behavioral symptoms, neuropathological features, and predisposing genetic factors. Despite some important progress in this field, the neurobiological features of each neuropsychiatric disorder are far from being fully understood. A key new factor that has been progressively identified and understood over the past decades is the role of glial cells in maintaining nervous system homeostasis. Given the complex and diverse activities organized by glial cells, they are now thought to be involved in virtually all brain pathologies. Moreover, many brain functions also depend on cell-to-cell contacts among the different glial cell types and between them and the neurons. In response to stimuli, glial cells adapt and help the tissue to recover from lost homeostasis by changing their morphology and gaining/losing or modulating their functions. This complexity is fascinating and not yet fully understood, but clarifying the interaction and function of glial cells presents a scientifically stimulating challenge. It also provides a unique opportunity to identify new therapeutic targets and develop new tools to modify their function as a strategy to treat various neuropsychiatric disorders. There is growing evidence that glial cells can be considered as new therapeutic targets, but few studies show that this is indeed a viable avenue.
This Special Issue aims to collate studies that focus on the aforementioned areas. We are primarily interested in findings from human medicine, but also open to basic research studies with translationally relevant goals to advance the study of glial morphology and function in pathological brain disorders. We also welcome review articles that might reveal new theories and perspectives on the role of glia as therapeutic targets or diagnostic tools in neuropsychiatry.
Prof. Dr. Luca Steardo
Dr. Marta Valenza
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- astrocytes
- microglia
- neuropsychiatry
- neuropharmacology NG-2 glia
- oligodendrocytes
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