Neuroinflammation pathways: a general review

Abstract

Activated microglial cells play an important role in immune and inflammatory responses in central nervous system and neurodegenerative diseases. Many pro-apoptotic pathways are mediated by signaling molecules that are produced during neuroinflammation. In glial cells, NF-κB, a transcription factor, initiates and regulates the expression of several inflammatory processes during inflammation which are attributed to the pathology of the several neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we discuss the most important neuroinflammatory mediators with their pathways. Attenuating cytokines production and controlling microglial inflammatory response, which are the result of understanding neuroinflammation pathways, are considered therapeutic strategies for treating neurodegenerative diseases with an inflammatory component.

KEYWORDS:

• neuroinflammation
• NF-κB pathway
• microglia
• neuroinflammatory diseases

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the University of Malaya for providing the research grant (RP001-2012C) and PPP grant (PV022-2011B).

Declaration of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.

The authors would like to thank the University of Malaya for providing the research grant [grant number RP001-2012C]; PPP grant [grant number PV022-2011B].