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0:00
My name is Alexei Verkhratsky.
I'm a Professor of Neurophysiology
at Manchester University in the UK.
I do mostly physiology and
pathophysiology of neural glial cells.
My lecture today is dedicated to the
principles of astrogliopathology,
which will cover all
the different phases
of pathological changes in
astrocytes and astroglia
from reactivity to
degeneration and atrophy.
0:29
Unfortunately, I
have to start with
a rather unpleasant statement.
There are about 600 neurological
diseases in this world.
Despite the incredible progress of medicine
that has been achieved in the last century,
we now can change joints
and livers and hearts.
Where we are in terms of
neurological diseases,
this remains still at the level of the late
19th and beginning of the 20th century.
We can alleviate
certain symptoms,
but we cannot cure a single
neurological disease,
particularly when it comes to
chronic diseases of the brain,
such as psychiatric diseases
or neurodegenerative diseases.
Of course, the clear reason for that is that
the brain is an incredibly complex organ,
and we don't even know what happens
in the human brain and physiology
nor say what is going to happen
in pathological conditions.
But also there is
one important thing,
over the last century,
the major target of our therapeutic
strategies were neurons.
At the same time, glial cells,
which are going to be the
focus of these lectures,
have been rather neglected,
despite the fact that they participate
in all neurological diseases.
1:38
Evolution has made a
specialization between the cells.
There is diversification
of functions.
Of course, neurons are perfected for information
processing and sending action potentials.
Neuroglial cells are perfected
for keeping homeostasis.
However, when pathology comes
and a lesion appears
and injures the brain,
the response of those cells to the
lesion are fundamentally different.
Neurons become stressed,
they cannot protect themselves,
and they cannot protect
the brain as an organ.
Glial cells, in contrast,
are changing dramatically
as they undergo
substantial morphological
and functional changes,
which allow them to
protect the brain
and to protect the
nervous tissue.
As long as this
protection is there,
the disease cannot
develop at the moment.
If the protection of
glial cells fail,
then neurological
disease begins evolving.
If we define a disease
as a homeostatic failure
