Therapeutic applications and strategies of neurobiomarkers in neurological disorders: A narrative review

Neurological disorders (e.g., glioma, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease) have long plagued clinicians due to their complex pathological mechanisms and therapeutic limitations. In recent years, neuroscience markers (e.g., glutathione, programmed death ligand-1 [PD-L1], amyloid-β, tau proteins, calcitonin gene-related peptide, etc.) have become a research hotspot as key indicators for disease diagnosis, therapeutic targets, and prognostic assessment. This article reviews the mechanisms of neurobiomarkers in neurological disorders and application strategies. The article concludes that antioxidant markers such as glutathione protect neurons by regulating oxidative stress; PD-L1, amyloid-β, and tau proteins are involved in key processes such as immune escape and neurodegenerative changes. Nanocarriers (e.g., liposomes and polymer nanoparticles) significantly enhance the therapeutic effect of targeted markers by optimizing drug delivery efficiency. In gene therapy, tools such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats can precisely regulate pathogenic genes associated with biomarkers. Although monoclonal antibodies (such as calcitonin gene-related peptide-targeting drugs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (e.g., anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents) have made progress, blood-brain barrier penetration, biomarker heterogeneity, and off-target effects remain major bottlenecks. In conclusion, neurobiomarkers provide new diagnostic and therapeutic ideas for neurological disorders and are expected to break through the existing therapeutic limitations by combining nanotechnology, gene editing and precision drug design. Future studies should further elucidate the dynamic patterns of biomarkers, develop multimodal targeting strategies, and facilitate clinical translation.