Nirva Institute · Astrocytes · Disease & Medicine
Can Astrocytes Become Therapeutic Targets?
The path from cell biology to medicine.
Astrocyte-targeted therapy is not yet a routine clinical reality, but multiple lines of preclinical work suggest it is plausible for neurodegenerative disease, chronic pain, epilepsy, and stroke recovery.
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Candidate strategies
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The translation challenge
The barrier is heterogeneity: astrocytes vary by region and context, and the same intervention may help in one setting and harm in another.
Scientific References
Primary literature
AMA numeric style. Citation numbers are unified across the Nirva Life ecosystem — the same number refers to the same reference across every library article. Full registry is anchored in the Cornerstone Paper.
- 183.Nedergaard M, Verkhratsky A. Astrocytes in brain health and disease. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2024. PubMed ↗
- 189.Liddelow SA, Guttenplan KA, Clarke LE, et al. Neurotoxic reactive astrocytes are induced by activated microglia. Nature. 2017;541(7638):481-487. PubMed ↗
- 192.Iliff JJ, Wang M, Liao Y, et al. A paravascular pathway facilitates CSF flow through the brain parenchyma and the clearance of interstitial solutes, including amyloid-β. Sci Transl Med. 2012;4(147):147ra111. PubMed ↗
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