Emerging Advances in Neuropharmacology: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Molecular Mechanisms of Neurodegenerative Diseases: Emerging Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets

Highlights What are the main findings? This review illustrates the individual key molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases. It emphasizes the signaling of crosstalk and common axis for neuroprotective function. What are the implications of the main findings? This review integrates a multilayered biomarker framework for the early detection and risk management of neurodegenerative diseases. Understanding the combinatorial therapeutic targets can boost diagnostic potential. Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s disease (HD), involve the gradual loss of structure or function of neurons in the nervous system and are an increasing threat to the aging population worldwide. Although these disorders have different clinical features which affect cognition, movement and other vital body functions, they share key underlying molecular and cellular processes. This starts with protein misfolding and aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, dysregulated protein homeostasis, neuroinflammation, and disrupted cell death pathways. Recent findings have added disease-specific processes, like amyloid-β and tau aggregates in AD, α-synuclein aggregation and mitophagy failure in PD’s, TDP-43-related impaired RNA metabolism in ALS, and mutant huntingtin causing transcription aberrations in HD. Protein interactome network analysis showed mechanistic crosstalk between pathogenic proteins of AD and PD. New evidence highlights how lysosomal dysfunction, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and microglial activation, act as a common axis in neurodegeneration. Advancements in genomics and epigenomics have found shared genetic risk loci and regulatory processes that affect how diseases develop and progress. Simultaneously, new biomarkers like circulating microRNAs, exosome-related pathological proteins, neurofilament light chain, inflammatory cytokines, and microglial activation markers are powering early diagnosis tools and disease variations. New imaging techniques also allow for the identification of protein aggregations before symptoms appear. Overall, these findings are accelerating targeted treatments and personalized medicine aimed at disease progression. This review highlights current insights into the molecular mechanisms of NDs and discusses new biomarkers and treatment targets that help future diagnostic and treatment strategies.

Small molecular therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases.

Targeting Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration in Parkinson's Disease: Emerging Natural and Synthetic Therapeutic Strategies.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder worldwide. It is associated with the ongoing degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and the formation of Lewy bodies that contain α-synuclein. These pathological changes lead to abnormalities of motor symptoms (tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia) and non-motor symptoms (cognitive decline, sleep abnormalities, psychiatric abnormalities). The pathogenesis of PD is complex and multifactorial, involving interconnected mechanisms such as oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation, impaired autophagy, ferroptosis, and genetic factors. To develop effective therapeutic interventions, these pathways need to be understood. Current treatments, such as levodopa and deep-brain stimulation (DBS), are symptom-based and do not break disease progression. Thus, considerable research efforts have been geared towards finding disease-modifying therapeutic strategies. Natural bioactive compounds, gene-based therapies, stem cell-based therapies, and nanotechnology-assisted drug delivery systems are promising alternatives as suggested by recent advances. Antioxidant compounds like curcumin, resveratrol, and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) show promising antioxidant and neuroprotective effects, and nanomedicine provides boosted delivery to the brain and targeted drug distribution. In future clinical applications, these new strategies could help to more effectively and permanently manage PD.

Neuroinflammatory and molecular pathways in Alzheimer's disease: mechanistic crosstalk and emerging therapeutic opportunities.

Network Biology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Neurodegenerative Disorders: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies

The most persistent biomedical challenges of the 21st century are neurodegenerative disorders (NDs), where molecular alterations lead to devastating clinical consequences and progressive neuronal loss. The prevalence of neurodegeneration is continuously rising and becoming the main contributor to chronic disability and mortality. Despite their clinical differences, many conditions share pathogenic processes, including oxidative stress, protein misfolding and aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. Instead of functioning independently, these processes cooperate to form a self-reinforcing network that gradually weakens synapses and ultimately leads to neuronal death. This study redefines neurodegeneration as a disorder of system-level failure by emphasizing poor cellular stress integration. In addition to demonstrating how gut microbiome gene networks impact inflammation and amyloid production, new research highlights the relationships between mitochondrial–lysosomal interactions, endoplasmic reticulum stress responses, and transcriptionally driven synaptic vulnerability. A key molecular topic is the interaction and pathogenic convergence of the JAK/STAT, HIF-1α, and Notch signaling pathways. Under ongoing metabolic stress, prolonged stimulation of this triad increases inflammation, hinders the regenerative processes, and maintains pseudo-hypoxic conditions, explaining why single-target treatments have mostly been unsuccessful. This review also explores progress in fluid, digital, and imaging biomarkers that facilitate early diagnosis and patient stratification, and assesses new disease-modifying approaches such as antisense oligonucleotides, immunomodulators, gene therapies, and small-molecular agents. Artificial intelligence is emphasized as an essential tool for integrating multimodal data, drug discovery and predictive modeling.

Neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases: pathogenic pathways and emerging pharmacotherapeutic targets in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.