Editorial

Central nervous system (CNS)-related pathologies have been one of the most ongoing challenges for scientists. Nowadays, these pathologies affect worldwide and in a majority of cases they lack of adequate therapies. Therefore, neurodegenerative diseases, pain and neurotoxicity are examples of disorders which still need important efforts and better solutions for their management. In this context, this issue reviews the state-of-art of diagnostic techniques, surrogates and biomarkers and new pharmacological approaches for the treatment of these old and new diseases. This issue contains eight reviews contributed by leading experts in the field. Drs. I. Dupiereux, W. Zorzi, I. Quadrio A. Perret-Liaudet, G.G. Kovacs, E. Heinen and B. Elmoualij review the methods of early detection and diagnosis together with the need of specific surrogates and biomarkers for some of the neuropathological conditions associated to protein misfolding including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. More focused in Alzheimer's disease, Drs. S. Hashioka, P.L. McGeer, A. Monji and S. Kanba, summarize the mechanism by which antidepressants have antiinflammatory properties and therefore can represent a preventive treatment for Alzheimer or other pathologies with a neuroinflammatory component. In relation with this class of disorders, multiple sclerosis remains as one of the most challenging considering its prevalence among young adults and the lack of adequate drugs for its treatment. In this context, Drs. D. Huang and A. Rae-Grant offer a current perspective about the approved therapies as well as the current status of some of the pharmacological agents in clinical phases. With respect to CNS disorders derived from motor neuron degeneration, Drs. Y. Chen, V. Meininger and G.J. Guillemin review some of the recent advances in the treatment of amyothrophic lateral sclerosis with a special focus on the importance of kynurenine pathway inhibitors. This issue is further extended by Drs. T. Chu and W. Wu to the spinal root avulsion injury, which also causes motoneuron death. In their review, they discuss the potential of different trophic factors as motoneuron neuroprotective agents.