Pharma, Pharmaceutics and Biotechnology Conference

Neuropharmacology is the influence of drugs on the nervous system, especially as applied to the development of therapy for neurological diseases. This is a very crucial area within the infectious disease area because many pathogens are known to the central nervous system or CNS, which in turn leads to neuroinfections.

Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, thus leading to conditions such as meningitis, encephalitis, and neuroinflammatory diseases.

This understanding of the pharmacological approach to such infections will require further improvement in the outcome for patients. Neuroinfections by herpes simplex virus, HIV, and West Nile virus infection present a special challenge. The brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier, so most drugs cannot penetrate to exert their effects on the CNS. Neuropharmacology responds to this challenge by developing drugs that can such barriers and exert their therapeutic effects without serious side effects.

Some examples of drugs studied in this area are antiviral and antibiotic agents for various other infectious diseases targeting the brain and spinal cord. This is another neuropharmacology feature, by paying special attention to secondary effects of infectious diseases on the nervous system, neuroinflammation, neuronal damage, and long-term cognitive deficits.

Indeed, there have been occasions in which patients with HIV or COVID-19 have been quoted to state neurological complications, which spurred the scientists to find drugs that can counteract the inflammation and be neuroprotective agents of these management effects.

This session will focus on neuropharmacological advances in infectious diseases understanding mechanisms of neuroinfection, overcoming difficulties in drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier, and novel therapeutic approaches to CNS infection.

The session will also touch upon neuroprotective strategies that have been enacted to minimize the damage from infections and to maximize neurological health.