ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine how nervous system dysfunction causes brain disorders. Brain disorders are a greater cause of disability than any other class of diseases in modern societies. An important and obvious goal in studying brain disorders is to identify therapeutic strategies that will decrease disability and alleviate human suffering. Rather than comprehensively addressing the vast array of brain disorders, they focus primarily on selected disorders, the principles of which can be applied broadly to those not discussed here. Similar microglia transcriptome changes have also been associated with other neurodegenerative disorders. Since the original discovery that Mecp2 mutations underlie Rett syndrome, specific missense mutations in Mecp2 that presumably have weaker effects than a complete loss-of-function have been associated with sporadic autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, highlighting shared molecular pathways between different brain disorders.
