Natural products for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

Donghan Cui; Yajuan Chen; Bengui Ye; Wenhao Guo; Dongdong Wang; Jun He

doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155101

Natural products for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

Phytomedicine. 2023 Dec:121:155101. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155101. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Authors

Donghan Cui¹, Yajuan Chen², Bengui Ye³, Wenhao Guo⁴, Dongdong Wang⁵, Jun He⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Abdominal Tumor Multimodality Treatment, Cancer Center and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University, West China Hospital, Chengdu 610041, China.
² School of Rehabilitation, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Medical College of Tibet University, Lasa 850002, China.
⁴ Division of Abdominal Tumor Multimodality Treatment, Cancer Center and State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University, West China Hospital, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: guowenhao@wchscu.cn.
⁵ Centre for Metabolism, Obesity, and Diabetes Research, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, HSC 4N71, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada. Electronic address: wangd123@mcmaster.ca.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: Jun_He@scu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37778246
DOI: 10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155101

Abstract

Background: Neurodegenerative diseases are among the most common diseases in older adults worldwide. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are two of the most common neurodegenerative diseases, and are accompanied by cerebral cortical atrophy, neuronal loss, protein accumulation, and excessive accumulation of metal ions. Natural products exhibit outstanding performance in improving cerebral circulatory disorders, promoting cerebral haematoma absorption, repairing damaged nerve tissue, and improving damaged nerve function. In recent years, studies have shown that neuroinflammatory mechanisms and signalling pathways closely related to the occurrence and development of neurological diseases include microglial activation, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway, mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathway, reactive oxygen pathway, nucleotide binding oligomerisation domain-like receptor protein3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes, toll-like receptor4 (TLR4) pathway, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) pathway, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway, and intestinal flora. Therefore, this study considered the mechanism of neurological diseases as the starting point to review the mechanism of action of natural products in the prevention and treatment of AD and PD in recent years to provide a theoretical basis for clinical prevention and treatment.

Aim: Natural products are a promising source of novel lead structures that have long been used to treat various nervous system diseases.

Methodology: This review collected literature on neurological diseases and natural products from 2012 to 2022, which were mainly searched through databases such as ScienceDirect, Springer, PubMed, SciFinder, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Google Scholar, and Baidu Academic. The following keywords were searched: neurological disorders, natural products, signalling pathway, mechanism of action.

Results: This review summarises the pathogenesis of degenerative neurological diseases, recent findings on natural products used in neurodegenerative diseases, and the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects.

Keywords: Mechanism of action; Natural products; Neurological disorders; Signaling pathway.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Aged
Alzheimer Disease* / drug therapy
Alzheimer Disease* / metabolism
Biological Products* / pharmacology
Biological Products* / therapeutic use
Humans
NF-kappa B / metabolism
Neurodegenerative Diseases* / drug therapy
Parkinson Disease* / drug therapy
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
Signal Transduction

Substances

Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases
Biological Products
NF-kappa B