title: Neurological and psychiatric disorders as a neuroglial failure.
abstract: Neuroglia are a diverse non-neuronal population of cells in the central and peripheral nervous system. These cells have a variety of functions that can all be summed up as the maintenance of homeostasis of the nervous system. It is the loss of homeostasis that represents the culprit of all disorders. Thus, neuroglia can be envisioned as the pivotal element in all neural disorders, be that neurological or psychiatric. In this review, we discuss the role of glia in homeostasis and defence of the nervous system as well as changes in the morpho-functional characteristics of these cells in various disorders.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK ; Achucarro Center for Neuroscience, IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain ; University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod 603022, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verkhratsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, Atomic Force Microscopy & Nanotechnology Laboratories, Civitan International Research Center, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA ; Department of Biotechnology, University or Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parpura
keywords: NG2 glia; astrocyte; microglia; neurodegeneration; neuroglia; neurological diseases; oligodendrocyte; psychiatric diseases; reactive gliosis