Treating neurodevelopmental disorders: challenges, issues, problems, concerns, difficulties, harms, worries, doubts, but we need to start from somewhere

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of very heterogeneous diseases in which the development of the central nervous system is defective. In neurodevelopmental disorders defective brain development translates into aberrant brain function, which can manifest for example as impaired learning, motor function, or social interaction. Despites years of investigation in animal models and clinical research on neurodevelopmental disorders, there are currently no approved pharmacological treatments for core symptoms of the vast majority of them. Here, I will share some recent work (but also some apprehensions) of our laboratory on the development of strategies for the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on Down syndrome.