News Release

Researchers discuss treating neurological disorders with neural stem cells

Book Announcement

World Scientific

Neural Stem Cells in Health and Disease

image: This cover of "Neural Stem Cells in Health and Disease." view more 

Credit: World Scientific, 2015

In his latest book published by World Scientific, Professor Ashok Shetty presents a comprehensive guide on neural stem cell behavior in health and disease.

Entitled Neural Stem Cells in Health and Disease, this book comprises critical reviews on mechanisms of neural stem cell activity; the extent and functional significance of neurogenesis in the adult brain under normal, aged and disease environments; the susceptibility of neural stem cells and plasticity of neurogenesis to alcohol, drugs of abuse and anesthetic agents; advanced techniques that trigger neurogenesis in non-neurogenic regions of the brain; the promise and efficacy of grafting of neural stem/progenitor cells for treating neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, temporal lobe epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injury.

The novel elements in this book comprise critical discussion on the following topics:

(i) How neural stem cell activity and adult hippocampus neurogenesis are tied closely to the activity of hippocampus circuit, and how the plasticity of hippocampus circuitry depends upon the behavioral state of the organism as it interacts with its environment.

(ii) Differences in subventricular zone neural stem cell niche organization and neurogenic capacity between rodents and humans.

(iii) Ability of neural stem cells to significantly enhance endogenous regenerative, reparative, and protective capacities in the adult as well as the aging brain after intracerebral transplantation.

(iv) Consequences of radiation therapy and chemotherapeutic agents on neural stem cell activity and neurogenesis, in the context of radiation-induced cognitive decline and chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction.

(v) Contribution of subventricular zone neurogenesis in replacing neurons that are lost due to ischemia or stroke in the adult brain, the link between stroke-induced neurogenesis and functional recovery after stroke, stroke-induced neurogenesis in the human brain and the promise of neurogenesis enhancing strategies for improved functional recovery after stroke.

(vi) How altered neural stem cell activity and neurogenesis in the hippocampus play roles in promoting temporal lobe epileptogenesis after brain injury or insults.

(vii) Mechanisms that contribute to increased neural stem cell activity and neurogenesis following traumatic brain injury, and the promise and challenges concerning harnessing of endogenous neural stem cells for repair after traumatic brain injury.

(viii) The possible role of altered neurogenesis in the development of cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by loss of memory.

(ix) Detrimental effects of moderate to high-dose binge-like and chronic exposures to alcohol on proliferation of neural stem cells and the survival of newly born neurons, and the beneficial effects of spontaneous reactive neurogenesis following abstinence.

(x) The link between hippocampus neural stem cell activity and neurogenesis with the relapse of methamphetamine seeking behavior.

(xi) Anesthesia-induced detrimental effects on neural stem cell function and its relationship to the duration and route of the exposure, and the stage of the neural development at the time of exposure.

(xii) Progress pertaining to in vivo reprogramming of resident glial cells into neurons in models of injury and neurodegenerative diseases.

(xiii) Advances in neural stem cell derivation from various sources, differentiation methods for obtaining specific dopaminergic lineage, and the current challenges to overcome prior to the clinical use of neural stem cell derived cells for treating Parkinson's disease.

(xiv) Advantages and limitations of grafting of a variety of stem cells including neural stem cells for neuroprotection in stroke.

(xv) Progress in neural stem cell based therapies for status epilepticus induced injury and chronic temporal lobe epilepsy.

(xvi) Mechanisms by which neural stem cell grafts mediate beneficial effects in preclinical models of Alzheimer's disease

(xvii) Promise of transplantation of neural stem cells, neural progenitors, olfactory ensheathing cells and Schwann cells isolated from a variety of sources for treating spinal cord injury.

(xviii) Advances made in manufacturing a variety of human neural cell types from pluripotent stem cells that can be used as donor cells for cell transplantation.

Readers will be provided with a breadth of information on neural stem cell behavior in health and disease as well as its implications.

The book retails US$118/£78 (hardcover) at leading bookstores. For further information regarding the book, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9309

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About the author

Professor Ashok K. Shetty (shetty@medicine.tamhsc.edu) is Director of Neurosciences at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, Temple, Texas, USA.

About World Scientific Publishing

World Scientific Publishing is a leading independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. The company publishes about 600 books annually and more than 130 journals in various fields. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation, US National Academies Press, as well as its subsidiary, the Imperial College Press, amongst others, to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com.

For more information on the book, contact Jason CJ at cjlim@wspc.com.sg


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