Protein kinase inhibitors in traumatic brain injury and repair: New roles of nanomedicine.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes physical injury to the cell membranes of neurons, glial and axons causing the release of several neurochemicals including glutamate and cytokines altering cell-signaling pathways. Upregulation of mitogen associated protein kinase (MAPK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) occurs that is largely responsible for cell death. The pharmacological blockade of these pathways results in cell survival. In this review role of several protein kinase inhibitors on TBI induced oxidative stress, blood-brain barrier breakdown, brain edema formation, and resulting brain pathology is discussed in the light of current literature.