Perspectives for therapy in neurodegenerative disorders

New insights into the mechanisms underlying immune-mediated neurodegenerative disorders indicate that therapeutic strategies should not only target the pathogenic immune response but also aid neuroprotection and neuronal repair. In this chapter we review the therapies that are currently used for neurodegenerative disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, brain trauma, multiple sclerosis, paraneoplastic neurodegenerative disorders and Parkinson's disease. We first focus on those approaches that target the immune response in disorders in which the immune responses has been shown to play a key role in the disease such as myasthenia gravis, paraneoplastic disorders and multiple sclerosis. In the second part the neuroprotective approaches are discussed including existing approved compounds as well as experimental approaches to treat these disorders.