Treatment, detection and monitoring of disease of the nervous system, especially trauma or hypoxia, in particular in the central nervous system and the eye by up-regulation or increasing levels of Ndfip1 (also known as Nedd4-WW Domain Binding Protein 5 or N4WBP5). Prophylaxis of such conditions in pre-term infants, coronary artery bypass graft, chemotherapy, tumor irradiation and other patients.