1. Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption: A Common Driver of Central Nervous System Diseases
- Author
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Ricardo Gargini, Pilar Sánchez-Gómez, Aurelio Hernández-Laín, Pablo Mata-Martínez, Berta Segura-Collar, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), European Regional Development Fund, Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER)
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Central nervous system ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Immune system ,Central Nervous System Diseases ,Glioma ,Parenchyma ,Humans ,Medicine ,Neurodegeneration ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,Brain ,medicine.disease ,Phenotype ,Blood-brain barrier (BBB) ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Blood-Brain Barrier ,Neurology (clinical) ,Blood-brain barrier disruption ,Pericyte ,Neurovascular unit (NVU) ,Pericytes ,business ,Alzheimer’s disease ,Neuroscience ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The brain is endowed with a unique cellular composition and organization, embedded within a vascular network and isolated from the circulating blood by a specialized frontier, the so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is necessary for its proper function. Recent reports have shown that increments in the permeability of the blood vessels facilitates the entry of toxic components and immune cells to the brain parenchyma and alters the phenotype of the supporting astrocytes. All of these might contribute to the progression of different pathologies such as brain cancers or neurodegenerative diseases. Although it is well known that BBB breakdown occurs due to pericyte malfunctioning or to the lack of stability of the blood vessels, its participation in the diverse neural diseases needs further elucidation. This review summarizes what it is known about BBB structure and function and how its instability might trigger or promote neuronal degeneration and glioma progression, with a special focus on the role of pericytes as key modulators of the vasculature. Moreover, we will discuss some recent reports that highlights the participation of the BBB alterations in glioma growth. This pan-disease analysis might shed some light into these otherwise untreatable diseases and help to design better therapeutic approaches. Work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and FEDER funds: PI13/01258 to AHL, by “Asociación Española contra el Cancer (AECC) grant: INVES192GARG to RG and by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and FEDER funds: RTI2018-093596 to PSG. Sí
- Published
- 2021