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Background: Stroke is a serious neurovascular problem and the leading cause of disability and death worldwide. The disrupted demand to supply ratio of blood and glucose during cerebral ischemia develops hypoxic shock, and subsequently necrotic neuronal death in the affected regions. Multiple causal factors like age, sex, race, genetics, diet, and lifestyle play an important role in the occurrence as well as progression of post-stroke deleterious events. These biological and environmental factors may be contributed to vasculature variable architecture and abnormal neuronal activity. Since recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is the only clinically effective clot bursting drug, there is a huge unmet medical need for newer therapies for the treatment of stroke. Innumerous therapeutic interventions have shown promise in the experimental models of stroke but failed to translate it into clinical counterparts., Methods: Original publications regarding pathophysiology, preclinical experimental models, new targets and therapies targeting ischemic stroke have been reviewed since the 1970s., Results: We highlighted the critical underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of cerebral stroke and preclinical stroke models. We discuss the strengths and caveats of widely used ischemic stroke models, and commented on the potential translational problems. We also describe the new emerging treatment strategies, including stem cell therapy, neurotrophic factors and gut microbiome-based therapy for the management of post-stroke consequences., Conclusion: There are still many inter-linked pathophysiological alterations with regards to stroke, animal models need not necessarily mimic the same conditions of stroke pathology and newer targets and therapies are the need of the hour in stroke research., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Modern lifestyle, changing eating habits and reduced physical work have been known to culminate into making diabetes a global pandemic. Hyperglycemia during the course of diabetes is an important causative factor for the development of both microvascular (retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) and macrovascular (coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease) complications. In this article, we summarize several mechanisms accountable for the development of both microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes. Several metabolic and cellular events are linked to the augmentation of oxidative stress like the activation of advanced glycation end products (AGE) pathway, polyol pathway, Protein Kinase C (PKC) pathway, Poly-ADP Ribose Polymerase (PARP) and hexosamine pathway. Oxidative stress also leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) like hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion and peroxides. Enhanced levels of ROS rescind the anti-oxidant defence mechanisms associated with superoxide dismutase, glutathione and ascorbic acid. Moreover, ROS triggers oxidative damages at the level of DNA, protein and lipids, which eventually cause cell necrosis or apoptosis. These physiological insults may be related to the microvascular complications of diabetes by negatively impacting the eyes, kidneys and the brain. While underlying pathomechanism of the macrovascular complications is quite complex, hyperglycemia associated atherosclerotic abnormalities like changes in the coagulation system, thrombin formation, fibrinolysis, platelet and endothelial function and vascular smooth muscle are well proven. Since hyperglycemia also modulates the vascular inflammation, cytokines, macrophage activation and gene expression of growth factors, elevated blood glucose level may play a central role in the development of macrovascular complications of diabetes. Taken collectively, chronic hyperglycemia and increased production of ROS are the miscreants for the development of microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a debilitating mental ailment characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression. Primary mood-stabilizing drugs like lithium and valproate alleviate the hypomanic or mild to moderate manic episodes in patients with BD. One of the extensively studied underlying mechanisms for these pharmacological interventions is inhibition of intracellular signaling cascades associated with glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β), a multi-functional serine-threonine kinase., Objective and Method: To summarize the different mechanistic aspects associated with GSK-3β signaling involved in the pathophysiology of BD and highlights drug discovery approaches pursued for the development of GSK-3β inhibition with detailed strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis. In this review, we endeavor to establish the correlation between neuronal GSK-3β inhibition and anti-manic response of different therapeutics used for the treatment of patients with BD., Results: The gene depletion or pharmacological inhibition of GSK-3β reproduces some of the behavioral effects of lithium including reduction of depression- and manic-like behaviors in rodents, which attested the intracellular GSK- 3β inhibition as one of the critical steps in mediating behavioral effect of mood-stabilizers. Furthermore, converging evidence supported the participation of GSK-3β in the regulation of various neurobehavioral functions governed by neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Apart from its crucial involvement in the mechanism of action of mood stabilizers, GSK-3β signaling pathways have also received attention for their role in the effects of psychoactive therapies like antidepressants, antipsychotics, and neurotrophic factors., Conclusion: We anticipate that the GSK-3β could be a druggable target for several incurable neuropsychiatric disorders including BD., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)