Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1053, August 2005, Neuroprotective Agents: Seventh International Conference

As life expectancy has increased, so has the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly those associated with aging. Contributing to increased life expectancy is increased survival following brain injury, stroke, and procedures such as heart surgery, but these events can impair neurological function.

The wide range of contributions to this volume, from a detailed paper on the use of gene therapy in combination with hypothermia for the treatment of cerebral ischemia to a comprehensive poster describing the role of anesthetic agents in neurotoxicity during development and senescence, illustrate the scientific scope presented.

Contributions from clinical and basic science researchers from many disciplines address various approaches to providing neuroprotection. The clinical focus is on the complexity of neuroprotection, the need for understanding the time-course effects of hypoxia/ischemia, and the need for combinational and time-course applications of multiple therapies. New technologies are introduced for describing both the insult and the treatment necessary for neuroprotection, including gene expression assays (genomics) and gene therapy.

Several chapters are devoted to the examination of the predictive value of models for outcome measures in clinical ischemic stroke neuroprotective trials. The need to move from in vitro models to more predictive in vivo approaches with the use of pharmacokinetics is addressed. Other chapters emphasize the role of endogenous agents such as nitric oxide, melatonin, L-carnitine, and estrogens in acute and chronic neural injury and therapy.

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