The brain is a major metabolizer of oxygen and yet has relatively feeble protective antioxidant mechanisms. This paper reviews the Janus-faced properties of reactive oxygen species. It will describe the positive aspects of moderately induced ROS but it will also outline recent research findings concerning the impact of oxidative and nitrooxidative stress on neuronal structure and function in neuropsychiatric diseases, including major depression. A common denominator of all neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia and ADHD is an increased inflammatory response of the brain caused either by an exposure to proinflammatory agents during development or an accumulation of degenerated neurons, oxidized proteins, glycated products, or lipid peroxidation in the adult brain. Therefore, modulation of the prooxidant-antioxidant balance provides a therapeutic option which can be used to improve neuroprotection in response to oxidative stress. We also discuss the neuroprotective role of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) in the aged brain in response to oxidative stressors and nanoparticle-mediated delivery of ROS-scavenging drugs. The antioxidant therapy is a novel therapeutic strategy. However, the available drugs have pleiotropic actions and are not fully characterized in the clinic. Additional clinical trials are needed to assess the risks and benefits of antioxidant therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Worldwide elderly traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients tend to become an increasing burden to the society. Thus, a faster and less expensive way of evaluating TBI victims is needed. In the present study we investigated if optical coherence tomography (OCT) could be used as such a method. By using an animal model, we established if OCT can detect cortical changes in the acute phase of a penetrating TBI, in young (5–7 months) and old (20–22 months) rats. Due to the long‐term evolution of TBI's, we wanted to investigate to what extent OCT could detect changes within the cortex in the chronic phase. Adult (7–12 months) male rats were used. Surprisingly, OCT imaging of the normal hemisphere was able to discriminate age‐related differences in the mean gray values (MGV) of recorded pixels (p = .032). Furthermore, in the acute phase of TBI, OCT images recorded at 24 hr after the injury showed differences between the apparent damaged area of young and aged animals. Changes of MGV and skewness were only recorded 48 hr after injury. Monitoring the chronical evolution of the TBI with OCT revealed changes over time exceeding the normal range recorded for MGV, skewness and kurtosis, 14 and 21 days after TBI. Although in the present study we still used an extremely invasive approach, as technology improves, less invasive and non‐harmful ways of recording OCT may allow for an objective way to detect changes within the brain structure after brain injuries.

In the last years, physiological aging became a general concept that includes all the changes that occur in organism with old age. It is obvious now, that in developing and developed countries, new health problems concerning older population appear. One of these major concerns is probably dementia. Sooner or later, all forms of dementia lead to learning deficit, memory loss, low attention span, impairment of speech and poor problem solving skills. Normal ageing is a physiological process that also involves a lot of neurological disorders with the same type of symptoms and effects that many researchers are trying to minimize in demented patients. In this review we try to highlight some of the newest aspects of therapeutic strategies that can improve natural neuroregeneration.

The treatment of acute life-threatening events in patients suffering from chronic pathologies is problematic, as physicians need to consider multisystemic drug effects. Regarding Cerebrolysin, a Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway amplifier and one of the few approved neurotrophic treatments for stroke patients, concerns of excessive Hedgehog pathway activation that could accelerate NAFLD progression to cirrhosis seem valid. We investigated stroke patients treated with Cerebrolysin that presented elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and/or alanine aminotransferase (ALT). We also investigated the efficiency of Cerebrolysin in reversing the neurogenesis inhibition within the hippocampus in a mouse model of NAFLD by evaluating behavior and histological outcomes. NeuN, BrdU and Iba1 positive signals in the cortex and hippocampus of the animals were also observed. Clinically, Cerebrolysin improved AST levels in a majority of stroke patients with hepatic damage. The same treatment in an experimental setup was able to reverse anxiety-like behavior in MCD mice, reducing their freezing time from 333.61 ± 21.81 s in MCD animals to 229.17 ± 26.28 in treated ones. The use of Cerebrolysin did not improve short-term memory nor rescued cell multiplication in the hippocampus after MCD food intake. Understanding the neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects that drugs have on NAFLD patients can significantly contribute to a suitable therapeutic approach.

Stroke is a major health problem worldwide, with numerous health, social, and economic implications for survivors and their families. One simple answer to this problem would be to ensure the best rehabilitation with full social reintegration. As such, a plethora of rehabilitation programs was developed and used by healthcare professionals. Among them, modern techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation are being used and seem to bring improvements to poststroke rehabilitation. This success is attributed to their capacity to enhance cellular neuromodulation. This modulation includes the reduction of the inflammatory response, autophagy suppression, antiapoptotic effects, angiogenesis enhancement, alterations in the blood-brain barrier permeability, attenuation of oxidative stress, influence on neurotransmitter metabolism, neurogenesis, and enhanced structural neuroplasticity. The favorable effects have been demonstrated at the cellular level in animal models and are supported by clinical studies. Thus, these methods proved to reduce infarct volumes and to improve motor performance, deglutition, functional independence, and high-order cerebral functions (i.e., aphasia and heminegligence). However, as with every therapeutic method, these techniques can also have limitations. Their regimen of administration, the phase of the stroke at which they are applied, and the patients’ characteristics (i.e., genotype and corticospinal integrity) seem to influence the outcome. Thus, no response or even worsening effects were obtained under certain circumstances both in animal stroke model studies and in clinical trials. Overall, weighing up risks and benefits, the new transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation techniques can represent effective tools with which to improve the patients’ recovery after stroke, with minimal to no adverse effects. Here, we discuss their effects and the molecular and cellular events underlying their effects as well as their clinical implications.