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Table 1 Neurotoxic effects of chemotherapeutic agents in rodent models [25]

From: Chemotherapy and the pediatric brain

Drug

Form of neurotoxicity

Age

Brain region

Methotrexate

antimetabolite

Apoptotic and excitotoxic neuronal death, decline in neurogenesis, decrease in myelination, oxidative stress

7 days

3 months

3 months

12 months

Cortex, thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, corpus callosum, cerebellum, pons, medulla, hypothalamus [40, 41, 50, 68, 87, 88]

Cyclophosphamide

Ifosfamide

alkylating

Apoptotic and excitotoxic neuronal death, decline in neurogenesis, impairment of LTP, cytokine dysregulation, reduced glutathione, and glutathione peroxidase

7 days

8–10 weeks

2 months

Adult

7 months

12 months

Embryo

Cortex, thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, corpus callosum, neural tube [58, 68, 87,88,89,90,91]

Cisplatin

alkylating

Apoptotic and excitotoxic neuronal death,

Decreased cell division, altered granule cell migration and Purkinje cell dendrite growth, increased blood–brain barrier permeability, DNA damage due to oxidative stress

7 days

10 days

8 days

1 day

Embryo

Adult

Cortex, thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, cerebellar cortex, cerebellar granule neurons, hypothalamus [52, 68, 70, 92,93,94,95,96,97,98]

Vincristine

anti-mitotic

Apoptosis

8 days

Cortex, thalamus, caudate nucleus, hippocampus [68, 70]