title: Gene expression profiling and therapeutic interventions in neurodegenerative diseases: a comprehensive study on potentiality and limits.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable debilitating disorders of the nervous system that affect approximately 30 million people worldwide. Despite profuse efforts attempting to define the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, many aspects of these pathologies remain elusive. The novelty of their mechanisms represents a challenge to biology, to their related biomarkers identification and drug discovery. Because of their multifactorial aspects and complexity, gene expression analysis platforms have been extensively used to investigate altered pathways during degeneration and to identify potential biomarkers and drug targets.
  
  
  METHODS
  This work offers an overview of the gene expression profiling studies carried out on Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and prion disease specimens. Therapeutic approaches are also discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although many therapeutic approaches have been tested, some of them acting on several altered cellular pathways, no effective cures for these neurodegenerative diseases have been identified. Microarray technology must be associated with functional proteomics and physiology in an effort to identify specific and selective biomarkers and druggable targets, thus allowing the successful discovery of disease-modifying therapeutic treatments.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Prion Biology, Neurobiology Sector, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Benetti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gustincich
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Legname
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers