The Role of Pharmacological Agents in Nerve Regeneration after Peripheral Nerve Repair

Abstract

Peripheral nerve injuries are frequent and represent a significant pathology of the peripheral nervous system because, despite operative techniques and successful microsurgical repair, in most cases, the nerve repair is followed by scar formation. Numerous investigations have been carried out with the aim of finding pharmacological substances that can prevent scar formation and speed up the regeneration of repaired nerves. This chapter is dedicated to the efforts of many researchers to find different pharmacological agents with local effects on the improvement of nerve regeneration. Numerous experiments have been carried out in mice and rabbits using hyaluronic acid, tacrolimus, cyclosporin A, melatonin, vitamin B12, methylprednisolone, riluzole and potassium and calcium channel blockers. In the experimental animal studies, topical pharmacological agents were used at the site of peripheral nerve repair. The effect of these substances is most commonly studied in sciatic nerve injury in experimental animals. Their effects were evaluated using a variety of methods, such as morphological, biomechanical, electrophysiological and functional evaluation, and the above-mentioned substances, have been shown to have neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties though different mechanisms.

Immune response following traumatic spinal cord injury: Pathophysiology and therapies

“…V10367 resulted in increased neuroregeneration in the CNS and peripheral nervous system (165). Tacrolimus in addition to its immunosuppressive effects also has neurotrophic activity and has been shown to enhance nerve regeneration in peripheral nerve injury (166,167). Due to the potential of neuroimmunophilin ligands in the treatment of nerve injury, further preclinical studies are needed to clarify their potential role in the treatment of tSCI.…”

Electroresponsive Silk-Based Biohybrid Composites for Electrochemically Controlled Growth Factor Delivery

“…Current therapeutic procedures are surgical, employing biomaterials to bridge nerve defects with varying degrees of success [24][25][26]. To enhance the probability of successful outcomes, the use of pharmacological agents and biomolecules, such as microRNAs or growth factors to promote nerve regeneration have gained attention over the last few years [27][28][29]. Neurotrophins are one of many examples of these, which regulate extracellular signaling, neuronal survival and differentiation and axonal regeneration [30].…”

Comparison of melatonin and curcumin effect at the light and dark periods on regeneration of sciatic nerve crush injury in rats

“…It has been shown that prescribing certain drugs helps nerve tissues recover and repair. Commonly used drugs include tacrolimus, hyaluronic acid, melatonin, curcumin and methyl prednisolone (Ma et al, 2016[22]; Mekaj and Mekaj, 2017[25]).…”

“…Curcumin possesses excellent neuro-protective, antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory properties and can balance enzymes and inflammatory cytokines (Yüce et al, 2015[45]; Liu et al, 2016[21]; Mazaheri et al, 2017[24]; Noorafshan et al, 2011[28]; Mohammadi and Mahmoodi, 2013[27]). Curcumin can be used to protect the brain against ischemia, heal spinal cord injury, and quicken damaged peripheral nerve repair as it can strengthen central and peripheral nervous systems (Ma et al, 2016[22]; Mekaj and Mekaj, 2017[25]). …”