Clinical Research Progress of Small Molecule Compounds Targeting Nrf2 for Treating Inflammation-Related Diseases

Zhenzhen Zhai; Yanxin Huang; Yawei Zhang; Lili Zhao; Wen Li

doi:10.3390/antiox11081564

Clinical Research Progress of Small Molecule Compounds Targeting Nrf2 for Treating Inflammation-Related Diseases

Antioxidants (Basel). 2022 Aug 12;11(8):1564. doi: 10.3390/antiox11081564.

Authors

Zhenzhen Zhai¹, Yanxin Huang¹, Yawei Zhang¹, Lili Zhao¹, Wen Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of New Drug Research and Safety Evaluation, Henan Province & Key Laboratory of Advanced Drug Preparation Technologies, Ministry of Education & Key Laboratory of Henan Province for Drug Quality and Evaluation, Zhengzhou 450001, China.

Abstract

Studies have found that inflammation is a symptom of various diseases, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA); it is also the source of other diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), lupus erythematosus (LE), and liver damage. Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) is an important multifunctional transcription factor in cells and plays a central regulatory role in cellular defense mechanisms. In recent years, several studies have found a strong association between the activation of Nrf2 and the fight against inflammation-related diseases. A number of small molecule compounds targeting Nrf2 have entered clinical research. This article reviews the research status of small molecule compounds that are in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, lupus erythematosus, and liver injury.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; COVID-19; Nrf2; Parkinson’s disease; clinical research; inflammation-related diseases; liver damage; lupus erythematosus; small molecule compounds.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Industry, Education and Research of Science and Technology Department of Henan Province of China (No. 15210700041) and the Key Technologies R & D Program of Henan Province of China (No. 222102310279). The APC was funded by (No. 15210700041).