Cognitive Impairment and Peripheral Neuropathy from Chemotherapy: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Approaches

Background
Around eighty percent of cancer patients suffer from the adverse effects of chemotherapy, including cognitive deficits, motor imbalance and peripheral neuropathy, during and after the treatment. These adverse side effects can persist for years leading to an impaired quality of life and severe financial impact. Although the number of cancer survivors is increasing tremendously, little efficacious therapies addressing these difficulties exist.

Goal
Chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) has been shown to result in long lasting changes in the brain. This can lead to a decrease in connectivity (as shown by fMRI), processing speed, attention, learning and memory, visual-spatial skills, multitasking, goal-directed behavior, and motor function. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), on the other hand, triggers the abnormal cutaneous sensations of mechanical allodynia, thermal hyperalgesia, tingling, numbness and spontaneous pain. The CIPN-induced mechanical allodynia is negatively correlated with loss of intraepidermal nerve fibers. These negative life altering pathological conditions represent a growing public health concern. Unfortunately, there are very few Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs to treat or prevent these neuropathies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to elucidate the molecular mechanism of CRCI and CIPN and identify efficacious therapeutic targets to combat these neuropathies.

Scope and information for Authors
We invite papers which address, but are not limited to, the following themes:
• In vivo and in vitro models of chemotherapy
• Chemotherapy induced cognitive impairments
• Chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy and chronic pain 
• Molecular mechanisms of chemotherapy induced neuropathies
• Drugs which prevent or reverse the neuropathies
• Oxidative stress in the brain 
• Motor incoordination
• Chemotherapy mediated neuroinflammation
• Influence of chemotherapy on other neurodegenerative diseases

Dr. Sandeep Rajput is currently an employee of Genus public limited company. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests.