One of the most promising and practical applications resulting from the enormous advances made in the understanding of molecular structure and biology of proteins is in the area of therapeutics and drug development. While recombinantly produced protein and peptide drugs offer the possibility for extremely specific and potent pharmaceuticals for the modulation of biological responses, the toxico...

background: amniotic membrane derived stem cells (amscs) have considerable advantages to use in regenerative medicine and their anti- inflammatory effects, growth factor secretion and differentiation potential make them suitable candidates for stem cell therapy of nervous system. the developing and neonatal brain contains a spectrum of growth factors to direct development of endogenous and dono...

The study of phantom limbs has received tremendous impetus from recent studies linking changes in cortical topography with perceptual experience. Systematic psychophysical testing and functional imaging studies on patients with phantom limbs provide 2 unique opportunities. First, they allow us to demonstrate neural plasticity in the adult human brain. Second, by tracking perceptual changes (suc...

Long-term modification of synaptic strength is one of the basic mechanisms of memory formation and activity-dependent refinement of neural circuits. This idea was purposed by Hebb to provide a basis for the formation of a cell assembly. Repetitive correlated activity of pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neurons can induce long-lasting synaptic strength modification, the direction and extent of whi...

Glutamate is extensively and relatively uniformly distributed in the central nervous system (CNS) and its effects mediated by two distinct groups of receptors including Ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors. Concentration of glutamate in the nervous system is much higher than in other tissues. Glutamate receptors play an important role in synaptic transmission, neural plasticity and n...

Studies at the basic and clinical levels demonstrate that neuronal atrophy and cell death occur in response to stress and in the brains of depressed patients. Although the mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated, progress has been made in characterizing the signal transduction cascades that control neuronal atrophy and programmed cell death and that may be involved in the action of antidepre...

In researches that examine neuroplasticity, many studies that are performed directly on isolated neurons in the pyramidal cells of CA1 area (CA1) and slices of the hippocampus indicate that changes occur at the molecular and cellular levels during long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP), and these changes are dependent on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) acid receptors and/or purinergic receptors. Ele...

Experience-dependent plasticity is a prominent feature of the mammalian visual cortex. Although such neural changes are most evident during development, adult cortical circuits can be modified by a variety of manipulations, such as perceptual learning and visual deprivation. Elucidating the underlying mechanisms at the cellular and synaptic levels is an essential step in understanding neural pl...

In this paper a novel self-repairing learning rule is proposed which is a combination of the spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) and Bienenstock, Cooper, and Munro (BCM) learning rules: in the derivation of this rule account is taken of the coupling of GABA interneurons to the tripartite synapse. The rule modulates the plasticity level by shifting the plasticity window, associated with STD...