Table 2.

Summary of effects of MB or PBM on neurodegenerative disorders and brain injury

Disease	Effect of a treatment with MB	Effect of a treatment with PBM
AD	• Increases functional MRI activity and improves memory retrieval [200]	• Reduces hyperphosphorylated tau, neurofibrillary tangles, and oxidative stress [234, 235]
	• Decreases Aβ levels and Aβ-ABAD binding [226]	• Increases the ability of Aβ phagocytosis [236]
	• Attenuates the activity and expression of β-secretase, inhibits the formation of neurotoxic oligomeric Aβ, and improves behavioral results [19, 20, 198]	• Improves spatial learning and memory by significantly reducing Aβ burden [236]
		• Exerts neuroprotection by activating the
	• Inhibits p-tau aggregation and tau-tau interactions [229, 230]	ERK/CREB pathway and upregulating the expression of BDNF [237]
	• Reduces excessive ROS production [17, 22]
	• Upregulates Complex IV activates, heme synthesis and mitochondrial function [226, 231–233]	• Restores mitochondrial dynamics [8]
TBI	• Decreases edema and lesion volume and improves behavioral scores [163]	• Neurological improvement [246]
	• Increases autophagy [242].	• Increases mitochondrial function, improves blood flow, and reduces swelling [244, 247]
	• Inhibits excessive ROS production and attenuates mitochondrial dysfunction, cytochrome c release, and neuronal apoptosis [243]
		• Decreases oxidative stress, inhibits inflammation, and attenuates apoptosis [244, 247]
Stroke	• Improves behavioral results after focal cerebral ischemia [16]	• Improves neurological rating scores [4, 255, 256]
	• Decreases lesion volume, cerebral edema, and gray and white- matter damage [16, 18]	• Stimulates neurogenesis and improves mitochondrial function [4, 262]
	• Increases cerebral global glucose uptake and blood flow [251, 252]	• Preserves mitochondrial integrity [263]
	• Increases mitochondrial function [9, 252]	• Attenuates mitochondrial fragmentation and restores mitochondrial dynamics [254]
	• Preserves mitochondrial structure and function [253]
	• Increases mitophagy and preserves mitochondrial membrane potential [253]	• Decreases protein carbonylation, DNA oxidative damage, and lipid peroxidation [254]
Depression	• Improves the symptoms of patients with severe depression [265]	• Improves depressive symptoms [274–277]
	• Selectively inhibits nitric oxide synthase (NOS) [264, 265, 270, 271]	• Improves ATP production and increases activity and expression of mitochondrial Complex IV [208]
PD	• Attenuates dopamine loss and reduces the disruption of mitochondrial function and excessive production of ROS [280–284]	• Reduces cell loss and inhibits inflammatory amoeboid microglia [287–290]
	• Improves Complexes I, II, and III activities, reduces free radical production, and improves behavioral results [252, 285]	• Improves speech, cognition, gait, and freezing episodes in PD patients [291, 292]
	• Upregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression [286]	• Improves mitochondrial function and reduces oxidative stress [293]