The cause of motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) remains a mystery. Initial implications of neurotrophic factor impairment involved in disease progression causing selective motor neuron death were brought forward in the late 1980s. These implications were based on several in vitro studies of motor neuron cultures in which a near to complete rescue of axotomized neonatal mo...

The cause of motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) remains a mystery. Initial implications of neurotrophic factor impairment involved in disease progression causing selective motor neuron death were brought forward in the late 1980s. These implications were based on several in vitro studies of motor neuron cultures in which a near to complete rescue of axotomized neonatal mo...

Animal studies have evidenced protection of the auditory nerve by exogenous neurotrophic factors. In order to assess clinical applicability of neurotrophic treatment of the auditory nerve, the safety and efficacy of neurotrophic therapies in various human disorders were systematically reviewed. Outcomes of our literature search included disorder, neurotrophic factor, administration route, thera...

Trauma and loss of cochlear inner hair cells causes a series of events that result first in the retraction of the peripheral processes of the auditory nerve, scar formation in the organ of Corti, and over the course of weeks to months (depending on the species) the loss of auditory nerve cell bodies (spiral ganglion cells). Neurotrophic factors play an important role in the mature nervous syste...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by histopathological and biochemical manifestations such as loss of midbrain dopaminergic (DA) neurons and decrease in dopamine levels accompanied by a concomitant neuroinflammatory response in the affected brain regions. Over the past decades, the use of toxin-based animal models has been crucial to elucidate disease pathoph...

Diabetic neuropathy is one of the most frequent and troublesome complications of diabetes. Although there has been a continuous increase in the incidence of diabetic neuropathy, treatments have yet to be found that effectively treat diabetic neuropathy. Neurotrophic factors are proteins that promote the survival of specific neuronal populations. They also play key roles in the regeneration of p...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) are the most potent neurotrophic factors for motoneurons, but their fate after retrograde axonal transport is not known. Internalized trophic factors may be degraded, or they may be recycled and transferred to other neurons, similar to the known route of tetanus toxin. We tes...

The secretion of BDNF from neurons is under activity-dependent control: this is crucial for the formation of appropriate synaptic connections during development and for learning and memory in adults. New evidence shows that interaction between a motif in the tertiary structure of BDNF and the sorting receptor carboxypeptidase E directs this neurotrophin to the regulated secretory pathway.

The neurotrophin gene family comprises four structurally related basic proteins, NGF, BDNF, NT-3 and NT-4/5. Despite high structural homology, these neurotrophins operate via different high-affinity membrane receptors, differ in target specificity, patterns of spatial and temporal distribution and responses to injury of the neuronal tissue. Based on the recent data, some aspects of BDNF and NT-...