Neuroprotective and anti-epileptic potentials of genus Artemisia L

Bayan Sailike; Zhannur Omarova; Janar Jenis; Altynay Adilbayev; Burkitkan Akbay; Sholpan Askarova; Wei-Lin Jin; Tursonjan Tokay

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.1021501

Neuroprotective and anti-epileptic potentials of genus Artemisia L

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Oct 19:13:1021501. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1021501. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Bayan Sailike¹, Zhannur Omarova¹, Janar Jenis², Altynay Adilbayev³, Burkitkan Akbay¹, Sholpan Askarova⁴, Wei-Lin Jin⁵, Tursonjan Tokay¹

Affiliations

¹ Biology Department, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
² Research Center for Medicinal Plants of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
³ Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
⁴ Laboratory of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine, National Laboratory of Astana, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
⁵ Institute of Cancer Neuroscience, Medical Frontier Innovation Research Center, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, The First Clinical Medical College of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

The Genus Artemisia L. is one of the largest genera in the Asteraceae family growing wild over in Europe, North America, and Central Asia and has been widely used in folk medicine for the treatment of various ailments. Phytochemical and psychopharmacological studies indicated that the genus Artemisia extracts contain various antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds and possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antimalarial, and antitumor activity. Recently, increasing experimental studies demonstrated that many Artemisia extracts offer a great antiepileptic potential, which was attributed to their bioactive components via various mechanisms of action. However, detailed literature on the antiepileptic properties of the genus Artemisia and its mechanism of action is segregated. In this review, we tried to gather the detailed neuroprotective and antiepileptic properties of the genus Artemisia and its possible underlying mechanisms. In this respect, 63 articles were identified in the PubMed and Google scholars databases, from which 18 studies were examined based on the pharmacological use of the genus Artemisia species in epilepsy. The genus Artemisia extracts have been reported to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neurotransmitter-modulating, anti-apoptotic, anticonvulsant, and pro-cognitive properties by modulating oxidative stress caused by mitochondrial ROS production and an imbalance of antioxidant enzymes, by protecting mitochondrial membrane potential required for ATP production, by upregulating GABA-A receptor and nACh receptor activities, and by interfering with various anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic signaling pathways, such as mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, ERK/CREB/Bcl-2 pathway and Nrf2 pathway. This review provides detailed information about some species of the genus Artemisia as potential antiepileptic agents. Hence, we recommend further investigations on the purification and identification of the most biological effective compounds of Artemisia and the mechanisms of their action to cure epilepsy and other neurological diseases.

Keywords: cognitive impairment; epilepsy; excitotoxicity; genus artemisia; neuroinflammation; neuroprotection; oxidative stress.

Publication types

Review