. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Neuroimmune Pharmacol. 2013 Jul 6;9(2):80–91. doi: 10.1007/s11481-013-9488-y

Table 1.

Neurotrophic activity of trophic factors in animal models of neurological diseases

Neurotrophic factors trials	Target neurons	Animal models	Clinical
BDNF, GDNF, CNTF	Motor neurons	ALS	BDNF
NGF, BDNF, FGF2	Basal forebrain Cholinergic, hippocampal and cortical neurons	AD	NGF, BDNF
BDNF, GDNF/Neurturin, FGF2	Dopaminergic neurons	PD	GDNF, BDNF
BDNF, NT-4, FGF2	Striatal neurons	Huntington’s disease
BDNF, NT-3, FGFs	Descending motor pathways	spinal cord injury
BDNF, FGFs, PDGF	striatal, nigral, cortical,	HAND

The activity of neurotrophic factors described here refers to prevention of cell death in vivo. Clinical trials of BDNF in ALS have shown modest or no effect. References are given in text.