Scientific rationale for the use of α2A-adrenoceptor agonists in treating neuroinflammatory cognitive disorders.

ABSTRACT: Neuroinflammatory disorders preferentially impair the higher cognitive and executive functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This includes such challenging disorders as delirium, perioperative neurocognitive disorder, and the sustained cognitive deficits from "long-COVID" or traumatic brain injury. There are no FDA-approved treatments for these symptoms; thus, understanding their etiology is important for generating therapeutic strategies. The current review describes the molecular rationale for why PFC circuits are especially vulnerable to inflammation, and how α2A-adrenoceptor (α2A-AR) actions throughout the nervous and immune systems can benefit the circuits in PFC needed for higher cognition. The layer III circuits in the dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) that generate and sustain the mental

SUBMITTER: Arnsten AFT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10080530 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature