Journal article : Review
Curing the brain: in search for new astrocyte-specific therapies
- Abstract:
-
Astroglia, an extended class of homeostatic and defensive cells of the central nervous system (CNS), contribute to the pathogenesis of all known neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The pathophysiology of astrocytes is complex, mutable, disease and disease-stage specific. In neuroinflammatory lesions and in various chronic conditions, astrocytes undergo an evolutionary conserved defensive remodeling known as reactive astrogliosis, which produces highly heterogeneous reactive astrocytic phenotypes. Broadly, reactive astrogliosis can be classified into proliferative anysomorphic barrier-forming astrogliosis characteristic of traumatic CNS lesions and nonproliferative isomorphic gliosis widely manifested in chronic neuropathologies. In addition, in many pathologies, astrocytes undergo atrophy and asthenia with resulting loss of homeostatic support and neuroprotection precipitating neuronal damage. Reactive and atrophic astrocytes may coexist or emerge in sequence in a disease-stage-dependent manner. Several classes of astrocyte-specific molecules and processes implicated in various diseases of the CNS represent therapeutic targets. Astrocyte-specific therapeutic strategies may improve both disease-preventing and disease-modifying therapeutic outcomes.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 13.5MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s12276-026-01712-4
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Experimental and Molecular Medicine More from this journal
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-24
- Acceptance date:
- 2026-01-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2092-6413
- ISSN:
-
1226-3613
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
-
- Subtype:
-
Review
- Pubs id:
-
2362236
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2362236
- Deposit date:
-
2026-01-19
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Verkhratsky et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2026, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record