Axonal transport

Axonal transport is the vital cellular process responsible for the bidirectional movement of organelles, proteins, and lipids between the neuronal cell body (soma) and the distal axon terminals [1, 5, 12]. This intracellular delivery system utilizes a microtubule cytoskeleton as structural tracks and molecular motor proteins—primarily kinesins for anterograde (outward) transport and dyneins for retrograde (inward) transport—to provide the necessary motive force [3, 8, 15]. Maintaining efficient axonal transport is critical for neuronal survival, as it ensures the delivery of essential synaptic components and the removal of damaged proteins for degradation via the autophagy-lysosome pathway [4, 9, 11]. Disruption of this process is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), where transport failure leads to axonal degeneration and the eventual loss of synaptic connectivity [4, 10, 13]. While "axonal transport" is a complex biological machinery rather than a single molecular target, specific components of the transport apparatus, such as microtubules and regulatory enzymes like HDAC6 or GSK-3β, serve as active therapeutic targets [7, 11, 16]. Several drugs, including microtubule-stabilizing agents like paclitaxel and novel translational inhibitors like buntanetap, are utilized or being investigated to modulate this system to treat cancer or mitigate neurodegenerative pathology [11, 14].

Other names

Axoplasmic transportAxoplasmic flowNeuronal transportActive axonal transport

Modulation of microtubule stability, motor protein binding, and regulatory kinase activity to maintain or restore neuronal transport efficiency.