The nervous system has a very good defence mechanism. The brain is
protected by the skull, the spinal cord is shielded by vertebrae and thin membranes.
The brain and spinal cord are buffered by cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). The nervous
system is susceptible to assorted disorders. It can be damaged by the structural defects,
autoimmune disorders, infection, degeneration disorders, trauma, blood flow
interference or tumors. At present, there is no treatment that can alleviate the disorders
of the nervous system completely. In recent years, progress has been made in treating
nervous system disorders symptomatically but still new product development is lagging
behind in treating the disorders originating in the nervous system. This is due to several
factors, including the intricacy of a particular disease or efficacy of the drug or
delivering system to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This chapter examines the
modern state of major nervous system disorders like infection (meningitis), functional
disorders (epilepsy, neuralgia), structural disorders (Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barre
syndrome) and degeneration disorder (Huntington disease). The discussion topics
include analysis of biological machinery underlying each disease, cytokine expression
involved in each disease and how it is regulated in particular disease along with its
involvement in targeted therapy, approved pharmaceutical drugs and the development
of new therapeutic technologies or customized approaches for drug delivery to
particular target (epigenetics, Gene therapy, stem cell therapy). We suppose that with
the intensification of modern science, the mobility of nervous system disorders will
decline.
Keywords: Bell’s Palsy, Cytokines, Epigenetics, Guillain-Barre Syndrome,
Huntington’s Disease, Meningitis, Nervous system disorders, Neuralgia, Stem cell
therapy.
