In recent years, the need to develop acceptable alternatives to conventional animal testing for neurotoxicity and developmental neurotoxicity has been increasingly recognized, and much effort is being directed toward the development of alternative models, utilizing mostly mammalian cells in culture but also non-mammalian model systems.
Animal models of schizophrenia and other major psychiatric disorders have been sought for decades, and, as a result, we are now facing new vistas on pathophysiology that could lead to novel therapeutic approaches and even hint at possible preventive strategies.
Our understanding of addiction and how it is treated has advanced remarkably over the past decades, and much of the progress is related directly to animal research.
In the past few years, the application of proteomics to examine the molecular mechanisms underlying (mal-)functioning of the nervous system and brain disorders has risen steeply, which in many cases has yielded novel insights.
Axon Growth and Regeneration: Methods and Protocols brings together a diverse set of techniques for the study of the mechanisms underlying central nervous system axon growth, consequently providing a resource that will aid in the development of repair strategies.
Although the available models, whether at the cellular, tissue, or animal level, do not exactly represent the biology of human brain tumors, animal models can offer significant insights into these tumors, providing a better understanding of biological mechanisms underlying tumor generation, growth, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis.
Neurotransmitter Methods is intended as a bench-side companion for researchers who seek to identify, locaHze, or measure neurotransmitters and/or to identify sites of neurotransmitter action.
Playing an important role in the treatment of neurological disorders, the delivery of drugs to central nervous system (CNS), both administered directly and administered systematically for targeted action, encounters a major challenge in the form of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which limits the access of drugs to the brain substance.
Animal models of schizophrenia and other major psychiatric disorders have been sought for decades, and, as a result, we are now facing new vistas on pathophysiology that could lead to novel therapeutic approaches and even hint at possible preventive strategies.
The rapid identification and characterization of genes of neurological relevance holds great potential for offering insight into the diagnosis, management, and und- standing of the pathophysiologic mechanisms of neurological diseases.
Transcriptomics and proteomics, studying the profile of the expression of nucleic acids and proteins respectively, are increasingly applied to gain a mechanistic insight into a wide spectrum of investigation, and the use of expression profiling studies for the central nervous system and brain function aids in the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and tumor development mechanisms.
It goes without saying that the principles and techniques of molecular biology are having and will continue to have a major impact on investigations into nervous system structure and func tion.
Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development of specific neural circuits is not just an intellectual curiosity but also central to our ability to develop therapeutic approaches to repair damaged pathways in the future.
With an ever-increasing elderly population and the resultant rising levels of dementia-related disorders, preclinical research based on animal models is pivotal to our knowledge of underlying molecular mechanisms and drug discovery aiming at the development of therapeutic strategies alleviating or preventing the neurological devastation.
Providing widely used techniques in genetic model systems and many complementing animal models, Brain Development: Methods and Protocols focuses its expert contributions on two key technical aspects of developmental neurobiology: detection of gene expression and functional characterization of developmental control genes.
If one envisages neuroscience as a pyramid, with the more mole- lar disciplines forming the base and the more integrative d- ciplines positioned above, then neuropsychology clearly would be near the tip.
Despite the difficulty in comparing clinic-based human tests with animal model testing, there is still great value in pursuing translational approaches, as tests and treatment strategies might be developed to improve brain function in humans suffering from neurological conditions and knowledge obtained from human behavioral studies can be used to further improve the animal models of behavioral analysis.
Providing a selection of the key techniques that are used in characterizing cerebral angiogenesis, Cerebral Angiogenesis: Methods and Protocols aims to define the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this important process.
Axon Growth and Regeneration: Methods and Protocols brings together a diverse set of techniques for the study of the mechanisms underlying central nervous system axon growth, consequently providing a resource that will aid in the development of repair strategies.
New high throughput techniques in neuroscience and psychiatry have enhanced the development of experimental, customizable animal models that are predictive of human neuropsychiatric pathology and give vital insights on the mechanisms and pathways involved.
This volume seeks to familiarize readers with a diverse range of technologies and approaches for probing neuron and circuit architecture, and, when possible, to attach detailed protocols to help guide readers toward practical application.
Gaining an understanding of the mechanisms by which cells process and respond to extracellular cues has become a major goal in many areas of bi- ogy and has attracted the attentions of almost every traditional discipline within the biological sciences.
Transcriptomics and proteomics, studying the profile of the expression of nucleic acids and proteins respectively, are increasingly applied to gain a mechanistic insight into a wide spectrum of investigation, and the use of expression profiling studies for the central nervous system and brain function aids in the understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and tumor development mechanisms.
The need to better understand the molecular, b- chemical, and cellular processes by which a developing neuronal system unfolds has led to the development of a unique set of experimental tools and organisms.
Since its first application, microdialysis has become incredibly popular to study brain function and has been applied with success in different fields from psychopharmacology, neurobiology, and physiology in animals and also humans.
Opioid Receptors: Methods and Protocols serves as a comprehensive guide to both key new techniques and established methods for the investigation of genetics, structural biology, transcription, and post-transcriptional events of opioid receptors.
This second edition provides updated and expanded chapters that critically address the issues or rodent stroke modeling, from choosing the model and outcome measures, designing the experiment, conducting and analyzing it, to reporting it in a scientific publication.
The purpose of Calpain Methods and Protocols is quite straightf- ward: it is to present the actual experimental methods used in many different laboratories for the study of calpain.
The discovery of stem and progenitor cells in the adult mammalian CNS challenged the long standing "e;no new neuron"e; doctrine and opened the door to the potential for cell replacement therapy.
Affecting over a hundred million individuals worldwide, retinal diseases are among the leading causes of irreversible visual impairment and blindness, and appropriate study models, especially animal models, are essential to furthering our understanding of the etiology, pathology, and progression of these endemic diseases.
