ABSTRACT
Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the leading reasons of mortality worldwide. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, multiple system atrophy, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and spinal muscular atrophy are among the leading examples of the mortality that progresses through neurodegeneration. A few drugs or therapies can partially improve the situation by alleviating the symptoms. Here, in this chapter, attention is drawn to different strategies that have been pursued to combat these diseases. Among them, gene therapy and stem cell therapy are the principal strategies that focus on the protection of neuronal networks by supplying important factors such as nerve growth factor and levo-dopa with the help of biotechnological tools and by implanting stem cells. Nanotherapy is another crucial field that focuses on the oxidative loads of the neurons and functions as antioxidants that reduce the oligomerisation and fibrillisation of misfolded proteins; nanotherapy also focuses on the efficient delivery of small molecules, drugs, etc. Small molecule therapy acts by reducing the oligomerisation and fibrillisation of misfolded proteins by inhibiting inflammation-inducing factors such as toll-like receptor 4 and several different kinases. Active and passive immunisation strategies are also discussed as a part of immunotherapy.
