The Cholinergic System in Aging and Neuronal Degeneration

Dear Colleagues,

Aging is one of the strong confounding physiological factors involved in various neurological disorders. Normal aging or age-associated dementia disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are associated with structural and functional alterations in the brain. Changes in the cellular activity of various cell types including neuronal, glial (microglia and astroglia), and oligodendrocytes have been reported in relation to physiological or pathological aging. These conditions may influence memory acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval over the lifetime. The cholinergic signaling pathway is active in various cell types and plays an important role in cognition, cell-signaling pathways, and in the regulation of inflammation. Cholinergic signals are modulated through direct action of the upstream cholinergic master regulator – nerve growth factor (NGF), or via the production of acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the chemical messenger that propagates cholinergic signals through nicotinic and muscarinic receptors found on various cell types.

With respect to specific etiologies associated with the physiological or pathological status of the nervous system involving cholinergic pathways, innovative methods have been developed and implemented in recent years. These novel therapeutic strategies include various drug delivery techniques, small molecule modulators and many others.

In this special issue, we invite original research (epidemiological, pre-clinical and clinical studies) and review articles that examine the underlying causes of age-related disorders to further advance our knowledge in this field. We also encourage submissions that focus on novel translational therapeutic strategies being developed for the alleviation of age-associated disorders.

Assis. Prof. Sumonto Mitra and Assoc. Prof. Homira Behbahani

Guest Editors

Manuscripts should be submitted via our online editorial system at https://imr.propub.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to start your submission. Manuscripts can be submitted now or up until the deadline. All papers will go through peer-review process. Accepted papers will be published in the journal (as soon as accepted) and meanwhile listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, reviews as well as short communications are preferred. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office to announce on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts will be thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. Please visit the Instruction for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) in this open access journal is 2200 USD. Submitted manuscripts should be well formatted in good English.